CO129-464 - Public Offices - 1920 — Page 562

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BRITISH-AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY (CHINA). LTD.

SHANGHA I.

12th March, 1920.

Sir:-

CHINA (COMPANIES) AMENIMENT ORDER IN COUNCIL 1919,

With reference to the interview which Viscount Acheson,

Mr. Cobbs and Mr. Kennett had with you on the 15th January

when they informed you that Sir Arthur Churchman was

coming to China for the purpose of making arrangements for the compliance by this Company and its subsidiary Companies with the new Order, we beg to inform you that Sir Arthur Churchman arrived here on the 9th instant, and the matter is now under consideration with the advice of Mr. A. G. Mossop.

and

It

Information has been received by a cablegram from London that the Directors of British-American Tobacco Company, Ltd, (London) have made representations to the Colonial Office as to the difficult position in which this Company and its Subsidiary Companies in China are placed by the new order, while Lord Acheson and Mr. Kennett were recently in Peking the matter was discussed with Mr. Lampson at the Legation and we were asked whether we could suggest any practical means of meeting the difficulty in which we were placed. was ultimately suggested that the difficulty might be met by a Supplemental Order in Council giving the Minister power to grant licences to China Companies to employ non-British Managers under special circumstances and under certain condi- tions. We were, however, unable to say whether this proposal was one which the Directors of British-American Tobacco Co., Ltd., would advise us to adopt, and it was arranged that we

should

ir E. D. H. Fraser, K.C.M.G.,

Registrar of Companies,

Shanghai.