CO129-582-5 Merchant Shipping Amendment Ordinance 1939 15-5-1939 - 22-1-1940 — Page 6

the Chinese or ourselves.

6

A

The Foreign Office, therefore, advise

against the amendment

and in this the Board of

Trade concur (see 10). Incidentally, both of

the Foreign Office telegrams enclosed in 8 were

at the time repeated to Hong Kong (though both

are prior to the Governor's despatch at 11).

The Foreign Office do not, however,

dispute the validity of the Tientsin Treaty, and,

therefore, of the proposed amendment to the Hong

Kong Ordinance, and I still do not see exactly

what the legal position is of British vessels which are given clearance for non-Treaty ports in China.

Unless they are given this clearance

they a

are

presumably not entitled to protection, and yet it is contrary to the Treaty provisions to give such

clearance. The Foreign Office advice is,

however, given on the ground of convenience after

consideration of the balance of advantages and

disadvantages.

But I

The delay is most unfortunate.

suggest we should now write to the Governor of

Hong Kong, with reference to 1 and 11 on this file,

referring to the telegrams enclosed in 8 and say

that for the reasons set out in those telegrams the

Secretary of State would prefer that the draft Bill

should not be proceeded with.

Say that the

Foreign