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 78

78

It was felt in Hong Kong

that this secured the benefits

of the draft Clause without the

necessity of putting it in the

Treaty and thereby involving

the possibility of a Chinese demand

for a quid pro quo.

(2)

The Clause as drafted would

give the Chinese Government an

opportunity to claim the right

to establish the Chinese Maritime

Customs in Hong Kong. An official

of that authority was in fact resident

there but only on sufferance, and he

was at the time under notice to leave.

The Hong Kong Government regarded the

establishment of the Chinese Maritime

Customs in Hong Kong as fraught with

dangerous possibilities not only of

administrative and jurisdictional

conflicts but also of the creation

of a centre of intrigue and irridentist

propaganda.

Against these arguments were set

the considerations that the

circular might be as easily withdrawn as

issued and that there was considerable

advantage in embodying the principle in

a treaty and that the establishment of

: