CO129-585-5 Sino-Japanese conflict- shipping on Pearl River 3-1-1940 - 25-8-1940 — Page 26

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ikes ngree:ent even more difficult; that in clnuse

unde at my request; the desired cetissions in the ****.*

can be simply allowed by omitting the "."." in its entirety,

as suggested by the Cfficer dinistering the Government,

Mongkong.

8.

all the above tedious details are mainly reported

for inform tâ on. What is important is whether say formuls

which is included in the exploratory proposals (1.0.

nclosure ) is likely to be prejudicial to British shi ping

interests elsewhezež

till the end of

AA AYAZO tha

February the view held at the Foreign Office was that in

negotiations for reopening the Yangtse and pearl Rivers no

important principle should be smorificed for inmediate

advantage. Although both Wr. Cikasaki at Hongkong and ir.

ata here have emphasised that there is no connection be-

tween the reopening of the url (iver "which will be done

in ang uasive atagen" and that of the Yangtee River, "which

will be done fully in one

ire are strong indications

that the so called reopening of the earl Haver is being

tried out for the benefit of the now larger question of

reopening the Yangtee ivoro Cuch indie: ona ara

Toller (waiioned a visit to Centon by the Japanese Consul

General at Shanghai; that the Japanese Consul-() neral here

mentioned that the Japanese Military Go mander-in-Chief at

Kansing had laid down sour of the restrictions with which

the local J anese autho itir #

to hedge free trading,

4

and that any amendments to the original Japanese proposals

would require reference to the Japanese GOVE FI Vent.

6.

I suggest to Your Excellency that the following

points are salient :-

(1) This so-called reopening of the Fearl River is farekal.

The proposed concession will not m terially benefit British