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Telegram from Sir M. Lampson (Peking), 27th March, 1930.
Your telegram of March 20th.
27
Since we do not yet seem to be very clear as to
broader aspects of this question would it not be as well
to defer for the present communication by Hongkong to
Inspector General of Customs of new draft agreement?
However non-committal letter to Maze may be he can hardly
make any written reply without submitting agreement to
members of Chinese government. This will only lead to
further discussion of details which seems undesirable if
it can be av ided as long as there is any doubt as to
principles governing our policy. If object is to
ascertain what reaction of Chinese government to proposed
amendments is (grp. undec.) I could probably find that
our (? grp. omtd.) very little to discuss with Maze when I
go south early next month. It seems to me that it will
only complicate matters to send him revised draft now.
Points on which I am still not clear are (1) is
there much smuggling, and (2) is agreement intrinsically
of value to Hongkong and what effect is it likely to
have if no agreement is signed for the time being?
Answer to (1) is a question of fact on which I have never
had sufficient data to form an idea. If smuggling
is now so rampant as to become at any moment a cause of
seri us friction between Chinese and urselves some
arrangement is clearly advisable. But of what kind?
If customs are allowed to function freely at Hongkong is
there not a danger of assimilating Hongkong to the status
of a treaty port and strengthening irredentist idea.
A
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