CO129-440 - Others & Individuals - 1916 — Page 536

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535

Last but not least you would be doing all this against the very wishes of the Governor and the Secretary of State, who, as

you will observe from the enclosure referred to above desire

that:

"if you

we S.R. & Co.Ltd

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- are prepared to appoint Messrs. Reiss & Co. accordingly (vis:"to be your agents at both Hong- kong and Canton") you should come to terms with them as quickly

as possible"

these Authorities having of course been placed in possession of

all the facts of the case, in order to enable them to arrive at

their decision.

You will not overlook that I came over here with a distinct

program, (namely to get the Texaco's consent to your being sub-

stituted for Cheetham) under certain definite "heads" of agree-

ment, as between your parent house and my Company. This under-

standing is of course not invalidated because of Mr. Cheetham's

resignation, - this gentleman'a elimination being even desired

by you, was in fact a stipulation of your London people at the

time these "heads" were drawn up and was withdrawn by them re-

luctantly only.

If now this self-slimination of Cheetham is to be used by

you as a ground to throw over our whole understanding (upon which

I have been working all the time in the mutual interest), it

follows that your London house and you are responsible to us if,

by your action or its consequences, this valuable agency is lost

to my Company. If your London friends wished to withdrew from

their obligations under these heads of agreement, they should

have said so in time to stop my negotiations in the mutual in-

teresta.

Well, let me hope that this stage of our negotiations has

been consigned to oblivion before this letter reaches you in

China. We are,

of course in active discussion about it with

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your London friends, who cannot possibly understand even today

the true position, which hinges of course not the least upon the

state of affairs on this side.

...