CO129-557-9 British protection of companies in China 26-3-1936 - 27-2-1937 — Page 24

COPY.

(F 1292/1161/10)

24

British Companies in China.

It

The meeting arranged on F 7773/383/10 of 1936 was held at

the Foreign Office on March 1st and was attended by representati

of the Board of Trade, Colonial Office and Foreign office.

was agreed that the best line of approach might be to define a

British company for the purposes of the Order-in-Council as

a company fulfilling certain conditions. Such companies would

be under British jurisdiction. Companies that did not fulfil

these conditions, although incorporated under British law, would

not be deemed to be British companies for the purpose of the

Order-in-Council, and would therefore be under Chinese jurisdicti

In special cases the Ambassador would have power to grant a

licence to a company even if it did not fulfil the prescribed

conditions. The effect of the licence would be that the company

would be deemed to be a British company for the purposes of the

Order-in-Council. If at any time the licence were cancelled

the company would remain under British jurisdiction for the

space of one year.

It was agreed that the Board of Trade, with the assistance

of Mr. Fitzmaurice, should prepare a first draft of the proposed

articles of the Order-in-Council.

These will be considered at

a further meeting, and it will probably be necessary to send them

out to Shanghai, Hongkong and Singapore.

(Signed) J. Pratt.

2nd March 1937.