CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 269

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obtained the arrangements they considered essential at

Shanghai had they not been in a position, with the counten-

ence of His Majesty's Government to offer corresponding ad-

vantages to the Chinese Administration in Hongkong. If

further proof be required of the interdependence of these

arrangements it is abundantly furnished by the Convention

of July 11, 1696, which provides in Article III for the

withdrawal of the special Charges levied by the Company on

traffic over the Hongkong Canton connecting line and cable

and of those collected by the Administration over their

land-lines between Sharp Peak and Foochow, and Woosung and

Shanghai: and in Article XV for the Extension "unaltered,

excopting as varied by the present Convention" of the above

montioned Agremonta of March 31, 1883, lay 7, 1885, Jan-

uary 21, 1884, and October 17, 1884.

The 1896 Convention, witnessed by His lejos-

ty's Minister and the Chinese Government, was renewed in

1904 with similar authority. Thus the agreements have

been approved and confined by His Majesty's Government and

are to remain in force until December 31, 1930.

I agree with Sir Frederick Lugard that the

expediency