CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 406

3)

(32415/11).

}

403

necessary steps for registering the Company at Shanghai

itself. In this connexion I am to forward herewith,

for Mr. Harcourt's information a copy of a letter from this Department to the Board of Trade, dated the 28-

instant, in which the scheme under Sir E. Grey's con-

sideration for carrying out this object is outlined.

The sort of difficulty which has to be met is best

illustrated by a telegram received from His majesty's

Consul General at Shanghai (paraphrase of which is en-.

closed), showing that no system of registration in

Hong Kong is likely to be satisfactory.

With regard to the loss of revenue to the Colony,

involved in the creation of companies under Shanghai

jurisdiction, registered in London by application at

Shanghai, to the entire exclusion of the Hong Kong

Courts, I am to request you to call Mr. Harcourt's

attention to the fact that the whole cost of the extra-

territorial system in China falls on the taxpayers of

the United Kingdom. At present these Shanghai Com-

panies registered at Hong Kong obtain the benefit of

this