50000-LB-CE 10
10/29.
THE OCEAN STEAM SHIP COMPANY LIMITED.
THE CHINA Mutual Steam Navigation COLTO
ALFRED HOLT & CO
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS:
"ODYSSEY,"LIVERPOOL.
TELEPHONE NO 300 BANK (12 LINES).
IN YOUR REPLY
PLEASE QUOTE:-
YOUR REFERENCE
India Buildings,
Liverpool
41
67
30th May 1930.
Personal
Dear Uncle Sydney,
Your very kind reception of my previous letter
emboldens me to write again about the negotiations now in progress
between the Government of Hong Kong and the Chinese Imperial
Maritime Customs.
Our friends, Swires, who have represented us in China
since 1866, write to me as follows :-
"As far as we all know, the general principle of the
agreement was accepted in Clementi's time, with the exception that
the Hong Kong Government wanted a quid pro quo for the permission
to the Customs to function in the Colony, which took the form of
Articles 5 and 10. The former provided for certain trading
privileges to ships under the British flag, which in fact would
only benefit the bogus British (in fact Chinese owned) tonnage
registered in Hong Kong. This abuse of the British flag, although
it is perfectly legal, has caused Anglo-Chinese incidents and is
always liable to cause them and is definitely disliked by all
the genuine British shipowners. The latter clause was put in
more or less at our instance, in order to do something towards
getting Hong Kong manufacturers inside the Chinese tariff wall. The first of these is of no advantage to British interests and the
second is not essential.
(UK)
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