CO129-521-13 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 27-8-1930 - 16-10-1930 — Page 75

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Office in London, will be able to furnish you with Copy

Mr.

of this document, which is of considerable length.

Wright of course writes from the Customs point of view,

but he makes a case for the fulfilment by His Majesty's

Government of its obligations towards China in the matter

of the protection of her revenues from smuggling based on

the Colony of Hong Kong.

5. A perusal of all these papers leads me to the

conviction, which I must confess I have felt instinctively

since I have had any acquaintance with this most compli-

cated question, that too much insistence may have been

placed on the conclusion of an agreement which, as it were,

imposes unwelcome obligations on both parties, when the

main object sought might perhaps be attained without forc-

ing either to make ooncessions which it can only grudging-

ly grant. It may be retorted that this is a counsel of

perfection, and that all agreement is based on compromise.

It is, however, possible to compromise too much, In other

words, I question, in the present instance, whether on the

one hand it is wise or necessary in the long run for the

Hong Kong Government to hand over to the Chinese Customs

the fiscal control of its harbours and territories, which

the latter are insisting upon as a means of putting a stop

to the misuse of British territory as a base for smuggling,

or whether on the other hand it is wise or necessary for

the Hong Kong Government to continue to press the Chinese,

as compensation for these concessions, to grant others

which, in their present frame of mind, they can but con-

sider hurtful to their national pride and opposed to their

declared policy. In fact since I came to know a little

more about it I have never really felt very favourably

disposed