CO129-531-15 Chinese customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 9-7-1931 - 17-1-1932 — Page 31

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Secretary states that the Hong Kong Government has little

hope that special treatment on the lines suggested will be

obtained.

I appreciate the sogency of the arguments adduced

by the Chamber as to the effect on Hong Kong industries of

a high Chinese tariff wall, but there seems little hope of

persuading the Chinese Government to agree that goods ma123 –

factured in Hong Kong and Kowloon should be allowed free

entry into China without the handicap of a tariff in com-

peting with articles mamfactured in China proper, The

attitude of the Banking Government over the question of ex-

tending the privileged factory treatment to Hong Kong fao-

tories, in cormsetion with the negotiations for a Custom

agreement, bears out this view; nor is it clear what we

should have to offer as a guid pro quo for the grant of this

e oncession.

4. As I have more than once pointed out in my des-

patches on the subject of the Customs agreement, (see, for

instance, paragraph 6 of my despatch Number 1587 of October

31st 1930) there is moreover a danger in assimilating the

status of Hong Kong too nearly to that of a Chinese Treaty

Port, in view of Chinese irredentist aspirations; and it

is, I fear, too much for the Colony to expect to "have it

both ways", i.e. to enjoy the security of a British CrowA

Colony and have all the economio privileges of a dependemy

of the Republic of China.

5.

The memoranda prepared by the Hong Kong Chamber

for the fariff Gonference of 1925-26 are somewhat out of

date in the light of the subsequent tariff autonomy treaties,

and/