CO129-521-12 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 2-4-1930 - 16-6-1930 — Page 62

61

3.

and it would be idle for me to deny that such measures wikl,

I fear, prove highly inconvenient to adopt a mild expression

But "needs must": to Hongkong and very expensive for us.

Finally, in regard to the suggestion that a "guid

"pro quo" should take the form of some practical scheme for

"the suppression of Piracy .... preferably under the auspices

"of the Customs organisation working in cooperation with the

"British Authorities in Hongkong," this appears to me to intro-

duce a politicial and/or military element into the discussion

which had better be left out? I believe that Chinese and

British cooperation in the matter of the suppression of Piracy

is essential and could probably be arranged, but I do not

consider that the Customs can properly be associated with

such an enterprise. And I fear, moreover, that if Hongkong

insists that a ready-made semi-Customs scheme for the suppres-

sion of Piracy must precede the acceptance of the Agreement

another deadlock is almost certain to result, in which case

we may be reluctantly compelled to resort to independent

action, as mentioned above. I trust, therefore, that this

new obstacle in connection with the Agreement will not arise

that is, I feel that it would be better to keep the two questions (Piracy and Agreement) separate, although I fully agree that Great Britain is justified in expecting China to do her part in endeavouring to remove this scourge (Piracy).

I /