6
beginning of this month the Japanese closed
the Pearl River for two weeks to navigation by
vessels of third Powers "for strategical reasons"
(see 58).
This new agreement has now been
negotiated by the competent British and Japanese
authorities, and it is practically identical
with the former agreement. The main difference
seems to be that, apart from the regular visits
in the ratio of 4 Japanese to 2 British ships for
any period of 4 weeks to which the contracting
parties are entitled, "it is immaterial to the
Hong Kong Government
how often
visits are paid by Japanese Government chartered
vessels
•
provided that the Japanese
authorities in return agree to an acceptable number
of visits by British passenger ships.
"
When the Japanese pressed for the
acceptance of the "Shirogane Maru" Mr.Blunt
expressed the opinion that the Japanese were
attempting to establish a regular passenger service
on the Pearl River at a time when British Companies
were not in a position to compete. When the
Japanese declared that the agreement was off
Mr.Blunt stated (in paragraph 7 of enclosure to
56) that in his opinion the Japanese would lose far
more by the cancellation of the agreement than
ourselves; and the fact that another agreement on
much the same lines has been negotiated would seem
to substantiate the view that the "Shirogane Maru"
was a try on, that the cancellation of the
agreement