the Chinese or ourselves.
6
A
The Foreign Office, therefore, advise
against the amendment
and in this the Board of
Trade concur (see 10). Incidentally, both of
the Foreign Office telegrams enclosed in 8 were
at the time repeated to Hong Kong (though both
are prior to the Governor's despatch at 11).
The Foreign Office do not, however,
dispute the validity of the Tientsin Treaty, and,
therefore, of the proposed amendment to the Hong
Kong Ordinance, and I still do not see exactly
what the legal position is of British vessels which are given clearance for non-Treaty ports in China.
Unless they are given this clearance
they a
are
presumably not entitled to protection, and yet it is contrary to the Treaty provisions to give such
clearance. The Foreign Office advice is,
however, given on the ground of convenience after
consideration of the balance of advantages and
disadvantages.
But I
The delay is most unfortunate.
suggest we should now write to the Governor of
Hong Kong, with reference to 1 and 11 on this file,
referring to the telegrams enclosed in 8 and say
that for the reasons set out in those telegrams the
Secretary of State would prefer that the draft Bill
should not be proceeded with.
Say that the
Foreign