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16 DEC 1927
19 do for. Secret (w/e 14 1 18) - 19)..
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Mr. Ellis.
Status of owloon Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs.
We discussed to-day with Sir C.
Clementi, Mr. Mounsey and Mr. Pratt.
Sir C. Clementi after a reference to the history
of the question, stated that his view was that
the Commissioner was welcome at Kowloon so long
as he was British or an acceptable foreigner.
If, however, a Chinese was to be appointed the
position would become intolerable and Hong Kong
would have to insist on his removal beyond the
frontier. Any such step might in turn result
in the renewal of "the blockade of Hong Kong"
which was a source of such trouble to the
Colony between 1868 and 1887. Mr. Mounsey said
that he would bear the point in mind but that
nothing could be done about it at present since
nothing was known of the intentions of the
Nanking Govt. towards Customs administration.
Sir C. Clementi said that he would
very much like to revive the negotiations for a Customs agreement between Canton and Hong Kong
which were initiated in 1912 or thereabouts and
finally dropped in Sir E. Stubbs' régime. The
object of the agreement was the conclusion of
arrangements to prevent smuggling, and the
negotiations were finally abandoned because
Canton insisted on Hong Kong controlling salt by taxation in the Colony. He agreed that such
measures would be both unfair and undesirable
but there were many steps which could be taken
to
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