CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 179

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]

AFFAIRS OF CHINA,

CONFIDENTIAL.

[28434]

No. 1.

176

0.

34181

[Aug26.]

75 SEP 07

SECTION 6.

(No. 318.) Sir,

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey,—(Received August 26.)

Peking, July 4, 1907. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith copies of a correspondence between His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae and myself respecting the registration at Shanghae as British ships of vessels belonging to British Companies registered at Hong Kong, with a preponderance of their capital and a majority of their directors British, but with their principal place of business in China.

*

The question was touched upon in my despatch No. 296 of the 20th ultimo, and as it may arise at any moment in an acute form, I should be glad to be furnished with au authoritative decision. The Judge of His Majesty's Supreme Court, it will be noticed, appears to hold the view that Companies which have not their principal place of business in a British Possession have no right to claim recognition as the owners of British ships, and Sir Pelham Warren, acting presumably on this interpretation of the law, has requested my instructions as to whether two vessels belonging to the Shanghae Pilot Company, which were registered in October and December 1906, should be removed from the register. He adds that there are other bond fide British Companies registered in Hong Kong, but doing business in Shanghae, which own vessels registered as British ships, and whose interests would be seriously injured by the strict interpre- tation which it is proposed to place upon section 1--(d) of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894.

I have informed Sir Pelham Warren that I do not feel justified in cancelling the registration of the two vessels in question, and have expressed the view that if the law as it stands is held to exclude vessels of this class from registration, some remedial legislation seems to be necessary to meet the requirements of the case.

In his previous despatch, copy of which was inclosed in my despatch No. 296, Sir Pelham Warren referred to applications which he had received from the Taku Tug and Lighter Company, of Tien-tsin, for registration of several of their vessels, and it seems to me to constitute an undoubted grievance if a British Company established at a Treaty port in China is to be obliged to maintain its principal place of business in Hong Kong, or to accept the alternative of being debarred from having its vessels registered as British at Shanghae.

The question will assume an additional importance if, as I understand from your despatch No. 200 of the 15th May and from the draft Merchant Shipping Regulations inclosed in your Consular despatch No. 22 of the 21st February last, steamers plying under the "Inland Steam Navigation Regulations" are henceforth to be obliged to register under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, for few of the Companies owning such vessels would, I imagine, have their principal place of business in a British Possession.

I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.

* Shanghae, No. 88, June 22; to Shanghae, No. 41, July 8, 1907.

[2621 cc-

-6]