CO129-579-8 Sino-Japanese War- shipping on Pearl River 23-6-1939 - 4-1-1940 — Page 6

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beginning of this month the Japanese closed

the Pearl River for two weeks to navigation by

vessels of third Powers "for strategical reasons"

(see 58).

This new agreement has now been

negotiated by the competent British and Japanese

authorities, and it is practically identical

with the former agreement. The main difference

seems to be that, apart from the regular visits

in the ratio of 4 Japanese to 2 British ships for

any period of 4 weeks to which the contracting

parties are entitled, "it is immaterial to the

Hong Kong Government

how often

visits are paid by Japanese Government chartered

vessels

•

provided that the Japanese

authorities in return agree to an acceptable number

of visits by British passenger ships.

"

When the Japanese pressed for the

acceptance of the "Shirogane Maru" Mr.Blunt

expressed the opinion that the Japanese were

attempting to establish a regular passenger service

on the Pearl River at a time when British Companies

were not in a position to compete. When the

Japanese declared that the agreement was off

Mr.Blunt stated (in paragraph 7 of enclosure to

56) that in his opinion the Japanese would lose far

more by the cancellation of the agreement than

ourselves; and the fact that another agreement on

much the same lines has been negotiated would seem

to substantiate the view that the "Shirogane Maru"

was a try on, that the cancellation of the

agreement