CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 452

C.O.

19075

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

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

(10399]

(Confidential.)

No. 1.

Foreign Office to Colonial Office.

Rac2

JUN 0

[March 24.]

450

SECTION 2.

Sir,

Foreign Office, March 24, 1909. I AM directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, forwarding a Secret despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong, with regard to the Island of Pratas in the China Seas.

I am to state in reply that Sir Edward Grey concurs in the reply which Sir F. Lugard proposes to return to a question asked in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, to the effect that no steps can be taken to erect a wireless station on the islands, as they are claimed by China, but that the Chinese Government will be acquainted, through His Majesty's Minister at Peking, with the importance which would attach to a typhoon signal station on the Pratas shoal, not merely to Hong Kong, but to the southern coasts of China.

[2194 aa-

-2]

I am, &c.

(Signed)

F. A. CAMPBELL.