CO129-557-9 British protection of companies in China 26-3-1936 - 27-2-1937 — Page 31

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in Shanghai.

Among the latter are Mr. Sun Fo, the

President of the Legislative Yuan, and General Wu Te-chen

the Mayor of this city. I enclose a copy of Mr. T. V.

Soong's speech at the reopening of business which

shows that he, at all events, regards the bank as a

purely Chinese institution,

10. If I may borrow an adjective from Mr. Small I

would urge that this state of affairs is becoming

intolerable for the British representatives in China

who are trying to maintain our extraterritorial rights

but find them continually weakened on account of abuse

by people who have no just claim to them. It would

be no real hardship to these Hongkong and Singapore

Chinese firms if they were compelled to devise other

methods for doing their China business. They would for

instance have no difficulty in forming their China

branches into native companies under local law, an

expedient already adopted by genuine British firms for

business in Japan and other countries, I hope therefore

that it may be possible to persuade the Singapore

authorities to withdraw their objections to the proposed

legislative amendments which so little affect the

legitimate commerce of the Straits Settlements but are

of great importance to British interests in this

country.

I have the honour to be,

sir,

Your Excellency's most obedient,

humble servant,

(sa) J.F. Brenan,

Consul-General.