CO129-558-11 Mission of Sir F. Leith-Ross to China- proposals for a Hong Kong - China customs... 29-9-1936 - 30-12-1936 — Page 113

good relations with the United Kingdom;

and they

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repeatedly assured me that they had no à esire to

We should make

prejudice British interests in China.

the most of these assurances and our Embassy in Tokyo

should not hesitate to emphasise to the Japanese

authorities, in a most friendly but quite firm manner,

that they cannot expect the relati ons between the two

countries to improve unless these verbal assurances are

carried into practical effect. In particular, we should

press tirelessly for the abandonment of the Japanese

campaign for "autonomy" in North China, which, involving

as it does the wholesale smuggling of Japanese goods,

and the disruption of the Customs service, threatens both

our trading and our financial interests in China, and

which, if allowed to continue, will undermine both the

political and financial stability of China.

(3)

Personnel of Chinese Customs.

As the result of numerous discussions with Japanese

representatives, the Japanese Government offered to

agree that the successor to the present Inspector-

General of Customs should be British provided that

we were willing to agree that a Japanese national should

be appointed Deputy Inspector-General and that he should

be succeeded in this post by another Japanese national.

No commitment would be made as to the more remote

future but this arrangement would, it seems to me,

meet the immediate necessities. The Japanese, more

hesitatingly, asked that there should be some consulta-

tion between the two Governments as to the individuals

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