CO129-365 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1910 [1-3] — Page 26

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of Liang Tou as a British subject.

With reference to the first of

these two questions. It does not appear to me that the

British Treaties anywhere clearly lay down this obligation,

and I enquired from Mr. Jamieson whether he based his con-

-tention on this point (see his No. 4 on last page of

letter to Viceroy dated 1st. December, 1909,) on Article 9

of the Tientsin Treaty (which did not appear to me to cover

it) or on the most favoured nation clause relying on an

obligation of this nature imposed upon China in a Treaty

with some other Power. He replied that he had at the time

in mind the general principle underlying every Treaty

China has made with Foreign Nations, and which is specifical-

-ly enunciated in Articles 8 and 10 of the Russian Treaty

of 1860 and Article 15 of our own Burma Convention".

Mr. Max Müller, Couneillor of

Embassy, who has been staying with me discussed the

question and expressed to me a doubt whether the Russian

Treaty would bear the interpretation put upon it. Article

15 of the Burma Convention is elear, but the privilege of

the most favoured nation clause eould hardly be invoked by

a nation in respect of a right secured under one Treaty in

regard to a particular country (e.g. Burma) and not secured

under