CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 173

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)

RECE

Rer 25 SEP 07

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[26413]

No. 1.

[August 7.]

SECTION 1.

Colonial Office to Foreign Office.—(Received August 7.)

THE Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and is directed by the Secretary of State to transmit, for the information of Sir E. Grey, with reference to the letter from the Foreign Department of the 8th June, and to the letters from the Colonial Department of the 30th May, 1903, and the 4th August, 1903, a copy of a despatch from the Acting Governor of Hong Kong, on the subject of the smuggling of warlike stores from Hong Kong into China.

Downing Street, August 6, 1907.

(Confidential.) My Lord,

Inclosure in No. 1.

Acting Governor May to the Earl of Elgin.

Hong Kong, June 28, 1907.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's telegram of the 12th instant, requesting that this Government will take special precautions

to prevent the smuggling of warlike stores from Hong Kong into China.

2. The nature and extent of the precautions taken in this matter were explained in Mr. F. J. Badeley's letter of the 23rd May, 1903, addressed to the Colonial Office, and inclosed in Mr. Chamberlain's Confidential despatch of the 29th May, 1903, and in Sir Henry Blake's Confidential despatch of the 3rd July, 1903.

3. These precautions are still strictly observed, and I have impressed upon the Captain Superintendent of Police the necessity for special vigilance at the present time. I fear, however, that for the reasons given by Sir Henry Blake it is impossible to devise measures which will finally put a stop to the illicit traffic in arms.

I have, &c. (Signed) F. H. MAY.

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