13
His Majesty's Ambassadors at Peking and Tokyo were
being consulted.
After the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
had made a statement on the lines of his Memorandum
the Lord Chancellor recalled that in 1930 he had paid
a visit to China. There was no doubt that politically-
minded Chinese desired the abolition of extra-
territoriality, but the Europeans were apprehensive.
He had visited Tientsin, where the German and Russian
Settlements had already been handed back to the Chinese
and presented a very unfavourable contrast with the
adjoining British Settlement. In Shanghai the leading
British inhabitants had been horrified at the idea of
handing the International Settlement over to the
Chinese. Although the Chinese Legal Code was admirable
it was not honestly administered by the Chinese Judges,
of which he gave examples. He hoped, therefore, that
the Foreign Office would consult the leading firms in
China, and the Shanghai Municipality, before making a
change which he believed would be disastrous to our
trade and embarrassing to the Chinese themselves, who
preferred the safety of Shanghai to the precarious
conditions outside.
In the course of the discussion it was shown that
2 the Government of India, the War Office and the Board
of Trade had special interests in this question and
would wish to be informed of the progress of negotia-
tions and consulted on their own aspects.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer communicated to
the Cabinet the views obtained in writing from
Sir Frederick L eith-Ross, who thought that the Foreign
Office Memorandum tended to paint the Chinese adminis-
tration in too favourable a light. He himself agreed.
He
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