CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 27

25

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without application to the law Courts (Article XVII).

This proposal is therefore in contravention of the

Treaty.

(a). This is a matter for the Hongkong Government.

I do not think the technicalities of English procedure

are likely to affect the ordinary Chinese official.

I see no reason why the Consul should be bound by them

either, the debt is still a debt and it is its

recovery which concerns him. If Consuls refuse to act

because the official Receiver instead of th actual

creditor approaches them, an instruction to that effect

might be sent them, but I do not see that it has been

established that they do.

(e) This seems unpractical; T have already riven

my view of the scope of the Treaty, and I do not hink

that I need labour the practical necessities of the

case,

of which both H.M. Minister and the Consul Ceneral

in Canton have so much more experience Sharı I.

In conclusion I wish to express my agreement with

the views of the Colonial Secretary and the Attorney

General of Hongkong. The practice as it exists seom s

to me satisfactory, supplemented possibly by instruc-

tions on some of the points raised in this corres-

pondence.

The Chinese official is the same as when the Tien-

tsin treaty was drawn. ongkong has changed. I t

has developed in prosperity and in the nature and

composition of its mercantile population. Foreimmer s

have come to trade there and a large business carried

on by limited liability companies has grown up. It is

not surprising that Article 23 is not adequate for

present requr ements. If Hongkong trade is hampered

by the rascality of certain Chinese the remedy appears

to me to be that the trading community should ocase to

do