CO129-521-13 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 27-8-1930 - 16-10-1930 — Page 82

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Malaya and the

2.

irredentist propaganda, he could not but

mistrust the whole thing politically as likely, sooner or

later, to be made use of by Chinese agitators and irredentists plotting for the recovery of the Colony. In any case, rightly or wrongly, the atmosphere for the original negotiations had now become so bad that he felt the best course was to scrap the agreement and seek an alternative solution along the lines recently suggested of some scheme for joint preventive measures. If Mr. Maze would instrust his local Commissioner, Mr. Osborne, to discuss the details of some such scheme informally with the Hong Kong authorities, some thing practical might result. agreed with Mr. Swire that Hong Kong were probably making a mis- take in seeking a quid pro quo but one could not simply over-

ride the feelings of the local people

of carrying them with one.

Не

it was rather a oase

Discussing the nature of any alternative scheme, Mr. Swire said that he understood that that put forward by Mr. Lloyd (superintendent of Customs and Excise) was quite impossible, at least the Chinese would certainly not have anything to do with it.

Sir Miles Lampson said he could offer no opinion on this,

as he had no idea of the details of the scheme, hut he repeated that he felt that there would be some hope of accomplishing something if Mr. Maze would authorise Mr. Osborne to explore the ground with the Hong Kong authorities locally.

(INI TALLED }

E.T.

14/6/30.