8.
On the general point of taking a friendly power to the International Court it will be seen from the above that there is a great difference between using the compulsory procedure and submitting a case to the Court or to an arbitral tribunal by special agreement. On gerral grounds we do not favour using the compulsory procedure where a friendly power is concerned, and in this particular case to use it would in our opinion have a deleterious effect on Anglo-Chinese relations. If on the other hand the parties agree to litigate there is really no reason why the litigation should be harmful to friendly relations. Indeed, it is likely that the result will be the contrary. By submission of a dispute to an independent tribunal whose decision the parties agree to accept, the tension in the relations between the parties should be very considerably relieved.
You sincerely
Dr Seartati.
(P.M. Scarlett).
W
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