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of cancellation of old treaties and a substitution of new ones incorporating in latter the old clauses which were retained by mutual agreement, but he assured me that this substitution would be more a matter of form than of substance. As an instance he would take cession of Mongkong to Great Brital. in treaty of Janking. In hiz scheme this would be dealt with in a new treaty which would provide for cancellation of treaty of Haniting save and except for particular articles covering Hongkong aid so with points retention of which was mutually agreed upon.
I objected that however much he might give assuran- ces that it was a matter of for immediate negotiation of new treaties would radically affect the position of foreigners in China. His "ajesty's Government were ready to meet reasonable aspirations of Chinese people, but they had equally the duty of safeguarding Fritish interests and in face o present conditions in China as brought out for example in extraterritoriality report he could hardly expect us to meet these extreme demands. I went on to say that we appeared to have reached a point where no further rapprochement of our standpoints was for the moment possible. If this was so I should probably continue my journey to Peking but would wait a day or two longer for the instructions I had asked for from the Foreign Office. We should no doubt have further meetings in that time, but on my departure I hoped he would consider the conversations es only temporarily suspended in order to enable both sides to take stock of the position. Later on I could either return myself or send O'Malley.
Chen
P.O
di
Th
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