CO129-491 - Public Offices - 1925 — Page 148

I do not really know what the Foreign

I can find nothing Office want us to tell them. in the Ordinance which purports to cast a duty upon the Consul to give a certificate and even if there was any such provision it would not be effective since Consuls in foreign countries are not within the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong Legislature. The question whether the Consul

can or cannot refuse a certificate seems to me to be one of consular propriety and not of law at all

307

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In any further communication

on this subject, please quote

No. F 5503/194/10.

and address-

not to any person by name,

but to-

"The Under-Secretary of Stato,"

Foreign Office,

London, S.W.1.

str,

2.0.

164332, FOREIGN OFFICE, 14

945

2nd December,1925.

"ith reference to your letter No. 49387/25 of the

13th último on the subject of a Chinese attempt to destroy the maritime commerce of Hongkong, and to my letter

F 5391/194/10 of the 19th ultimo, I am directed by Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain to transmit to you herewith, for

the information of Mr. Secretary Amery copy of a letter

addressed to the Board of Trade, together with two despatches just received from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, in which Mr. Palairet raises the question as to the position

of British Consular Officers in dealing with applications

for certificates of emigration. As explained in paragraph

3 of the Foreign Office letter to the Board of Trade, gir

Austen Chamberlain finds it difficult to deal with this

question before knowing the views of the Colonial Office

and the Board of Trade, and he would therefore be glad to

be furnished with Mr. Amery's observations on the question.

Sir Austen Chamberlain proposes to postpone dealing

with the point raised in your letter under reply until he

has received the observations of the Board of Trade,

2.

Under-Secretary of State,

Colonial Office.

I am,

sir,

Your obedient servant,

Muathlow