CO129-517-2 Correspondence on proposed Chinese and Hong Kong agreements over Customs 13-11-1929 - 28-12-1929 — Page 65

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"Preventive cordon" round Hongkong and the Leased Territory

not with a view to crippling the Colony's trade, but merely in order to protect as far as possible China's

Revenue. Such measures, however, are certain to affect

very adversely local commercial interests; and, it should be further considered, are equally certain to cause general misunderstanding, friction and ill-feeling, as well as tedious delay in the transport of British cargo. Further- more. I might possibly be ordered to still further tighten

the screws by removing our present Hongkong establishment to the Frontier at Sham-chun, and thus subject all rail- borne goods, etc., to examination, etc., there instead of at the Terminus in Kowloon; if it ever came to this, it is no exaggeration to remark that a section of the local

trade of Hongkong would be very seriously affected. I

don't wish to be misunderstood

no one would deplore the development of such a situation more than I would, and above all I don't wish to convey the idea to you, or to anybody else, that I am "threatening"; nothing could be further from my intention, but at the same time it is well to clear the air by a candid examination of a possible future situation which may arise, and of probable future Customs operations which we may have to set in motion if the Agreement is finally rejected.

I may perhaps incidentally mention here that the Chinese Ratepayers' Association of the International Settlement in Shanghai urges that reciprocal inland navi- gation rights should not be conceded in the proposed re- vision of the Sino-Japanese Treaty. They point out that,

inasmuch.....