CO129-423 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [7-8] — Page 191

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Paraphrase of Cypher Telegram

From GOVERNOR, HONGKONG,

SECRETARY OF STATE.

To

Date

13th July, 1915.

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When the Trading with the Enemy (China, Siam, Persia and Morocco) Proclamation 1915 comes into force on the 7th July will Germans in China be in all rospects in the same position as persons resident or marrying on business in enemy country, or will those transactions only be illegal which are specifically prohibited in the proclamation already in force.

Instructions are asked for on the following questions which have arisen:-

(1)

(2)

Will general non-trading intercourse be illegal? Will the property of Germans in China be liable to seizure and condemnation if found on board allied merchant ships at sea or in the port of Hongkong? If it is liable is it advisable to interferat

(3) Will the maintenance of existing contracts of agency and service become illegal? British firms have German employees. One British Company have an U.S.A. citizen as agent at Canton. The representative of the U.8.A. citizen at Canton is German and the U.S.A. citizen himself was in former times the agent in New York of a German firm carrying on business in Hongkong and China. Germans in China have British employees. The Municipal Council of the German concession at Hankow employs 18 Indian Police. The prohibition against making payments may decide some of these cases practically. A further question is whether German Customs Officers in the employ of the Chinese Government should be allowed to board British ships in Chinese porta.

(4) Will leages by British subjects to Germans in China be terminated? In the case of leases by Germans in China to British subjects payment of rent will be illegal but will the leases ba terminated or will the lessors be able to sue for rent at the end of the war?