CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 172

170

The questions dealt with in the correspondence

to which I have the honour to invite your attention do, in my opinion, constitute a distinct and so far as I know, an un- precedented invasion of the province of the diplomatic and

consular authorities in China. The correspondence was not

on

carriei between subordinate officials on the frontier of the

two teri itories. It was conducted between the Colonial Sec-

retary and an emissary of the Viceroy of Canton under the

direct orders of the Governor and it establishes to all in-

tents and purposes direct communication between the Viceroy

and the Governor over the head of the Consul General at Can-

ton.

It relates not to the escape of fugitive criminals

or matters of immediate urgency on the frontier, but to

methods of extradition between the two Goverments, to aui-

gration questions, to the Working Agreement for the Canton-

Kowloon railway, to the regulation of newspapers, and to other

matters in all of which the Consulate General is ignored.

Had lir.

One instance will suffice to illustrate my meaning.

Jamieson been consulted about the proposal that a Chinese

official