410
SHANBRAI,
Say ith, 19:0.
I saw Hr Haze this morning at his office. The first
thing we discussed was this complication regarding Customs
at Tientsin, but on that I may be making a separate note.
I then raised with him the subject of the Hong Kong
Customs Agreement, which we discussed thoroughly. K appears
that certain consultation has been going on in London betwee:
the leading lights of the China Association, Mr Stephenson
(London representative of the Haritime Customs), and the new
Governor of Hong Kong.
a result of this it seems
an invitation has been extended by the latter to Mr Hase to
visit Hong Kong soon after His Excellency's arrival in the Colony in order to discuss the question. It also appeared
that the Governor had expressed himself in general as being
in favour of the Agreement, but it had also been suggested
that as the Colony had to some extent admitted themselves
to a definite point of view, it might be necessary to devise
some form of face-saving device as a quid pro quo for the
Agreement, and I gathered that in this connection it had
been suggested
just by whom I cannot quite remember, but
I fancy by the China Association) that the quid pro quo
should take the form of Chinese cooperation for the suppres-
sion of piracy through the Customs. On this latter point
Mr Mase told me that he had taken the matter up with Kr
Soong and the latter had agreed that something of the kind
might reasonably be asked for if the Customs Agreement went
through.
I explained to Er Mase my position in this matter.
After running through the whole history as far as I knew it,
I came to the point, namely, that I was authorised to sound
him informally regarding the Hong Kong Draft Agreement of
November, 1989.
I would leave my copy with him for his
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.