CO129-517-1 Administration and function of Chinese Maritime customs- prevention of smuggling across Chinese frontiers 7-2-1929 - 15-11-1929 — Page 174

NO SECRET.

Copies to:-

Canton No. 25.

Peking No. 7.

Sir,

62720/29

182

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG

7th February, 1929.

130m

30035/27

(see also 578 in 30035/27

I have the honour to invite your attention to my Secret despatch of the 12th August, 1927, and

especially to its thirteenth paragraph on the

position which would arise in Hong Kong, were the

Foreign Inspectorate of the Chinese Maritime Customs

to be abolished. The maintenance of the integrity

of the Chinese Maritime Customs under its Foreign

Inspectorate is, in my opinion, essential for the

protection not only of British trade but of all

foreign trade with China.

It is the buffer between

the foreign trader and Chinese officialdom, and it is

also the one firm rock in the shifting sands of

Chinese finance.

Incidentally it also insures the

maintenance of the lighthouses up and down the China

Coast a matter of great consequence to all foreign

shipping.

2.

This fine service is now menaced with

disintegration.

The dismissal of Sir Francis Aglen

from the post of Inspector General, which he had held

for many years, was a severe blow to the Foreign

Inspectorate; but the circumstances in which

Mr. A.H.F. Edwardes, who succeeded him as Officiating

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S. AMERY, M.P.,

&C.,

&c.,

&c.

Inspector