CO129-224 - Foreign Office - 1885 — Page 335

Col-off-

700 Comor

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No. 50.

C. O.

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REC?

REGP 30 JUL 85

333

(No. 98. Confidential.)

Sir,

Earl Granville to Mr. O'Conor.

Foreign Office, May 11, 1885.

I HAVE received your telegram No. 35, Confidential, of yesterday's date,

I have to state to you that the reduction of the Frontier Tariff, with such limitations as those you mention, cannot fail to lead to inconvenient questions.

A claim on the part of France that the Tonquin frontier should be placed, in regard to Tariff duties, on the same footing as the Russian land frontier, cannot with fairness be maintained, as in the case of the latter the reduction of duty does no more, owing to the great cost of carriage, than place the trade on an equal footing with that of the ports.

I have this day communicated to you the substance of the foregoing by telegraph.

I am, &c.

GRANVILLE.

(Signed)