CO129-521-13 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 27-8-1930 - 16-10-1930 — Page 388

His Excellency

COP Y:

BRITISH LEGATION,

PEKING.

390

My dear Sir William,

2.

13th June, 1930.

I was very glad indeed to receive today your

letter of the 30th of May about the Customs Agreement.

I will try and give you my views on the

subject in this letter, but first of all let me say how much I reciprocate your wish that we could meet and talk things over. Ever since I heard of your appoint-

ment, I have felt that we must come together at the

earliest possible opportunity. An hour's talk on

matters of this kind is worth reams of correspondence.

Put for the moment, I don't know how it can be managed.

Unless there is some radical alteration in the situation

I do not intend to go south again until after the hot weather, possibly in September. As things are at the moment, with the Nanking Government fighting for its

existence, there is nothing that I can usefully accomplish down there. By September one can only hope that some solution of the present upheaval will allow the existing or another) government to resume its normal functions and enable me to start in again on the various questions, Boxer Indemnity, Extraterritoriality, etc., which are in the meantime being thoroughly threshed out at home. That being so, I doubt if it would be possible

Sir William Peel, K.B.E., C.M.G.,

etc. etc. etc.

Governor,

HONG KONG.

for