CO129-501-5 Chinese situation- Recognition of Canton Government 22-7-1927 - 28-9-1927 — Page 34

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7. His Majesty's Government are prepared to accept the principle that British missionaries should no longer claim the right to purchase land in the interior,

that Chinese converts should look to Chinese law and

not to treaties for protection, and that missionary,

educational and medical institutions will conform to

Chinese laws and regulations applying to similar

Chinese institutions."

It is clear that these proposals imply a radical

modification of the old Treaty position, so far as

British subjects in China are concerned; and, as the

British Colony of Hong Kong is geographically part of

China, the views of the Hong Kong Government and of

the mercantile community of Hong Kong are formulated

in this memorandum and are respectfully submitted for

the consideration of his Majesty's Government.

We agree that the old Treaty position should be

modified as soon as conditions in China as a whole or

in any considerable region of China warrant such

modification, and that the work of drafting such a

treaty should be begun at an early date, in advance

of any visible opportunity of negotiating it. But

we feel that the proposals made by His Majesty's Government, on the 27th January, 1927, and quoted

above, presuppose an orderly, modern Government,

such as does not exist in any part of China at the pre- sent time. Civil war unhappily rages almost everywhere in China; the country has politically disintegrated, and the numerous regional authorities exercise very loose

control