CO129-457 - Public Offices - 1919 — Page 550

In any further communication

on this subject, please quote

No. 130638/10F.

And address,

not to any person by name,

but to-

"The Under-Secretary of State,"

Foreign Office,

C

0

522

57565

REC

October

IRr.

E UCT '7

7.

FOREIGN OFFICE

71919.

London, S.W.1.

r

Sir: -

I am directed by Earl Curzon of Kedleston to

acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th ultimo

45825/1919 ,and to state that after careful consideration

His Lordship sees no reason for reopening at the present

time the question of the legality of the China Companies

System and the validity of the Hongkong Ordinance of

1915 or for stating a further case for the Law Officers,

in view of the opinion which their predecessors have

already pronounced upon the subject.

I am to add that, from the first paragraph of their

letter of July 23rd, the British American Tobacco Company

appear to be under a misapprehension as to the status of

the China Companies in question and I am to suggest that

Viscount Milner should point out to them that China Companies though registered in Shanghai are in fact in-

corporated in Hongkong under the Hongkong Ordinances and

The Under Secretary of State,

COLONIAL OFFICE.

that

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