CO129-328 - Governor Nathan - 1905 [1-6] — Page 93

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is true, been made by the Hongkong Government Surveyor; this

had been applied for with a view to the vessels being measured

for a British Certificate but was being used for the purpose

of the French Consul granting a French Certificate.

2.

The application was accordingly refused

and ordinary River Stemmer Certificates governed by the regula-

tions in Table 'D' of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance were

issued to the vessels in question. These Certificates allow

for a considerably less number of passengers than would be

the case were special licences, governed by the conditions in

Table 'F' of the Ordinance, issued. Such licences have applied

only to British River Steamers,

3.

The French Consul then interviewed me in

the matter and I informed him that I was not able to consider

for the purposes of our Ordinance a Certificate issued by the

French Consul as equivalent to one issued by the Authorities

in France and that as regarded the issue of special licences

to the two French Vessels I did not feel justified in extend-

ing any special advantages to these vessels which traded bet-

ween a British and a Chinese Port and received a subsidy from

the French Goverment of 172,000 francs per annum and were

thus placed in a position of advantage compared with the Bri-

tish vessels carrying on the same trade.

4.

The French Consul replied with arguments

which he subsequently embodied in the Memorandum dated the

27th. December of which I annex a copy and of which a copy

has been sent by him to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in

Paris.

5.

With regard to what M. Liebert terms the

question