Epy to F 9.
NOX SECRET.
Copies to:-
B.A. Tokyo. No.61.
B.A. Shanghai. No.42. Commissioner, Chinese
Maritime Customs, Kowloon.
Sir,
239648
8.
15
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
16th November, 1938.
0/
"/
I have the honour to refer to my secret telegram
4. No.319 dated 10th November, 1938, in which I undertook to
send by letter my comments upon British Embassy, Shanghai,
2. telegram No.1579 of 2nd November, 1938, relative to the
duties to be charged at the Kowloon office of the Chinese
Maritime Customs while the Japanese forces or a Chinese
administration set up and maintained by the Japanese are in
control of Canton. I attach a copy of a letter addressed
by the Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs to
the Commissioner of Customs at Kowloon which sets out fully
Sir Frederick Maze's train of ideas on this subject.
2. That branch of the dilemma, at which the Inspector
General finds himself, which primarily concerns the Hong
Kong Government is expressed by him in the following
passage "The Hong Kong Authorities may possibly object to
the local introduction by us at the Kowloon Railway Station
of a tariff promulgated by an unrecognised de facto
Government, in place of the existing tariff of the
recognised Government, on the ground that acquiescence on
their part to a change from what may be styled a de jure
tariff to a de facto tariff would imply tacit recognition
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,
&c., &c., &c.