Red 10.8-31
PERSONAL AND PRIVATE.
COVER HOP
STRAITS
ATLEMENTS
231 349
King's House,
Kuala Lumpur.
14th July, 1931.
Dear Lord Passfield,
Last week Mr. Justice Feetham passed through
Singapore on his way to South Africa and lunched with me.
After lunch he spoke to me at length about Shanghai
affairs. He told me that he is not going to England,
because he fears that any conference which he might have
with our Foreign Office would give Chinese Extremists in
the Kuo-min-tang a chance to say that he is, after all,
not an impartial judge, but a "running dog" of British
Imperialism. I find, however, that he is very much dis-
turbed in his mind over the negotiations between Sir Miles
Lampson and Dr. C.T.Wang for the abolition of extra-
territoriality. As you know, Mr. Feetham's report, while
contemplating eventual rendition of the International
Settlement at Shanghai, proposes a transition period of
some length, measured "not in years but in decades".
the negotiations in progress between our Foreign Office
and the Nanking Government appear to contemplate a mora-
torium of no more than 5 or 10 years in respect of
Shanghai. Mr. Feetham thinks that to prescribe any def-
inite period at the present time would be "to put a rope
round the neck of the Settlement", and he is most anxious
that no such provision should find its way into any treaty
between His Majesty's Government and the Nanking Government
He wished that his view of this matter should be known to
His Majesty's Government, the more so as he cannot visit
London and present it in person, and he asked me to use
any influence I might have to secure reconsideration and
delay.
Yet
I am
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