[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[12737]
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
[May 15.]
SECTION 1.
I
(No. 200.) Sir,
Foreign Office, May 15, 1907. I HAVE received your despatch No. 106 of the 4th March last, forwarding the text of certain rules submitted by His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton for dealing with the local difficulties connected with the launch traffic on the Canton and West Rivers.
The following points occur to me in regard to these Regulations:-
It seems established that various irregularities have been in existence at Canton, and that for many years past His Majesty's Consul-General at that port has acted upon the assumption that he was entitled to "register a British vessel," ie., to give it that national character that alone entitles it to fly the British flag. It is clear, however, that he has no such power; and unless the forty-five launches referred to in his despatch have been registered at Shanghae not one of them is entitled to fly the British flag or to be recognized as a British ship (see sections 2 and 72 of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 "). If the forty-five ships are so registered there is no scope for the registration at Canton in virtue of which His Majesty's Consul General issues the "Certificate of Registry" in the printed form that accompanies your despatch. That form purports to be "issued in terms of The Maritime Order in Council, 1874,'" but not only is that Order in Council now repealed, but there does not appear to have been any provision therein which justified the issue of such a certificate, nor can I find anything in the Order in Council of 1904 (the China and Corea (Shipping Registry) Order 1904) that would justify the issue by His Majesty's Consul-General of a Certificate of Registry in the form that he proposes to substitute for the printed form.
The registration at Shanghae that would give the vessel the right to fly the British flag is quite distinct from the registration under Article 2 of "The Inland Steam Navigation Regulations, 1898"; the latter is a Chinese registration, effected at the custom-house with a view to procuring the inland waters Certificate.
The question of registration appears to be quite accurately dealt with in Articles 4 and 39 of the draft Merchant Shipping Regulations, 1907. If these vessels at Canton were registered, as they ought to be, so as to enable them to fly the British flag, the complaint referred to in the last paragraph of Mr. Mansfield's despatch to you would have no basis, because all the vessels would have to be properly surveyed. Under the draft Merchant Shipping Regulations, 1907, such survey has to be made every year, and when those Regulations can be put in force no such difficulties will arise in the future.
If the information contained in the form of the inland waters Certificate is not sufficient to enable the Consul-General at Canton to exercise the control that he thinks necessary over the British launches there, it would be possible to enact Regulations requiring them to be registered, and to give such particulars as might be required at His Majesty's Consulate; but it must be borne in mind that such registration cannot per se entitle the launches to fly the British flag.
To sum up, it is clear that registration at Shanghae is a necessary prerequisite to the flying of the British flag by these launches, and that the whole matter is at present in a very unsatisfactory condition. From this condition the issue of Mr. Mansfield's rules, proceeding as they do upon an erroneous basis, will not rescue it.
In these circumstances I do not propose to sanction the rules submitted by Mr. Mansfield, though I fully recognize the excellence of their spirit; and I shall be glad if you will refer the whole question to the Judge of the Supreme Court, laying before him the substance of these observations, and requesting him to consider and report on the best steps to be taken, and to draft any rules which he may think desirable, in consultation with Mr. Mansfield and with His Majesty's Legation.
I am, &c. (Signed) E. GREY.
[2475 p-1]
136
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.