CO129-507-9 Chinese Telegraph Office- Hong Kong- transfer to Cantonese control 4-1-1928 - 20-7-1928 — Page 101

Copy.

No. 64.

Sir,

Enclosure No. 3.

101

Government House,

Hong Kong, 26th March, 1928.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt

of your letter of the 22nd March regarding the Chinese Telegraph Office in Hong Kong, and to request you to bring to Mr. Chu's attention the fact that no Chinese equivalent for the title "Commercial Agent in Charge of the Chinese Telegraph Office in Hong Kong" was agreed upon at the conference in Canton on the 10th March. A pencilled no te by Mr. Chu as a suggested translation was included in the notes of the meeting, but there was no discussion of it and the point was merely reserved for later consideration.

2.

The result of the conference was that I

engaged to raise no objection to the nomination by the Canton Government of a Commercial Agent to be in charge of the Hong Kong Office: but it was made perfectly clear that

this agent must be persona grata to the Hong Kong Government

and must not be an official and that his appointment would require the previous approval of the Hong Kong Goverment. Further emphasis was laid on the point that the selection of the agent must rest entirely on commercial grounds, and that the appointment could be in no sense a political one.

Accordingy, on my return to Hong Kong, after

3.

careful consideration I settled upon the following

translation of the title, the English version of which I note

from your letter is accepted by r. Chu, namely:-

管理駐港中國電報局商務絢美

Mr. Chu's version, namely 由廣東省政府派一居留 香港之中國商人光駐香港中國電報局局長