CO129-555-11 Benares Khan- admission to Hong Kong 7-11-1935 - 5-12-1935 — Page 3

3

12 the cnclosure

in (19) on

30353/34 [enil.

4.

As regards the comment in paragraph 4

of enclosure No. 11 regarding the free entry of

Chinese into Hong Kong, such entry, as the

F.0. and the Consulate General at Canton are

aware,

is specifically provided for by Section

7(b) of Ordinance No. 8 of 1934. The reasons for

this exemption are given in Mr. Gent's minute of the 10th December 1934, under 11 in 30383/34en't;

They wise

and one would have throught that we sufficiently

obvious to the Consulate General. Mr. Orde does

not specifically mention this point; and in view

of the decision on 30383/34 not to communicate

the substance of Mr. Gent's minute to the Foreign

Office, perhaps this point need not be mentioned

in the reply to the Foreign Office.

5.

As regards the general question, the

Foreign Office refer to the attitude of the

Straits Settlements Government as shown in the

Governor's despatch to the Ambassador at Peking

of the 19th November 1934, a copy of which is in

2469/35 General. It would appear that the atti-

tude adopted by the Governor in that case was

a

reasonable

dictated by reason of the disinclination to give

a promise which could not be carried out effective-

ly without doing some injustice to British

shipping firms.

It may be noted in this connection that

this was also the view of the Crown Advocate,

Shanghai, as given in the 9th paragraph of his

minute of the 27th September 1934, which runs as

follows:

"I am further, strongly of the

opinion that no attempt should be made to

penalise British Shipping Companies for

bringing