CO129-521-14 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 31-10-1930 - 10-1-1931 — Page 33

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on our side as the Hong Kong Government have no

power to conclude agreements with foreign

Governments.

In these circumstances the

obvious thing was to have the Agreement signed

by our Minister in China and the Chinese

Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Chinese had

objected to this, probably because they were

afraid of what the public would think of the

Agreement and wanted to minimise its importance.

The Agreement would, however, be equally valid

if it were signed by the Governor of Hong Kong

and the Inspector-General of the Maritime

Customs duly authorise. by full powers from their

respective Governments. In fact, the preamble

to the Agreement in its present form, which had

been agreed by the Chinese, provided for signature

in this manner, and it was agreed that this was

satisfactory from the Foreign Office and Colonial

Office point of view.

Sir Gilbert Grindle suggested that

an alternative way of meeting the Chinese objec-

tion might be to have the Agreement in form one between the Hong Kong Government and the Chinese Mari time Customs and to have itconfirmed later by

an Agreement between H.M.G. and the Chinese Govern-

ment which, perhaps. need not be published in

China.

Sir John Pratt agreed that this might

work