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them to provide for rights to engage in comstal
trade and inland navigation to be granted on a
reciprocal basis. H. M. G. would therefore wish
to discuss these questions at a later stage with
a view to arriving at a reciprocal agreement
possibly in the course of the negotiations for a
comprehensive treaty of commerce and navigation,
such as Article 7 of the American draft (Article
8 is ours) foresees. Meanwhile, the matter is not
one of immediate practical importance, and unless
the Chinese Government are particularly anxious to
deal with this question at once and to insert provisions
into the present treaties, H.M.G. would greatly prefer
not to enter into detailed negotiations on this subject
at the present time. But they would be prepared to tell
the Chinese Government that they will not claim the
continuance of their existing unilateral rights and
that, pending the negotiations for a comprehensive
treaty, they hope that the Chinese Government will not
prohibit British shipping from engaging in inland
navigation and, when this again becomes possible, the
coastal trade of China, especially as both in the U.K.
and the Colonies Chinese shipping is permitted to engage
in these trades,
It seems likely that if the matter were dealt with
on these lines time would be saved in negotiating the
treaty as a whole. But in any case it is the opinion
of the Foreign Office that the line just proposed nakes
a better tactical approach to this matter with
Chinese Government, If, however, the Chinese Government
were to insist on provisions being inserted into the
present treaty, an article on the general lines of that
proposed in the message from the Department of State