75
9.0 ( To India til 19399
767.0(Mr
Ashley
Clarke)
776 3.0
Mr Seel
F7477/428/10
F7696/828/10
Su KPoyser
Any
commenti
76?
Μν
Mr Sidebotham.
Mr34 Zumm
13
10 11.62
12.42
26
13.11.42
А
1. I gather that the draft Treaty has now been put before the Chungking Government with Article 6 in the form shown at 48 (flag). As indicated in my minute of the 5th November, E.A.D. can hardly take exception to this.
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But the Foreign Office draft,at 76, for the proposed exchange of Notes to deal with the question of real property raises our difficulty in an acute form. The draft makes no special reference to the position in the Kenya Highlands, and since the reservation of land ownership in the Highlands to Europeans is not specifically prescribed in the Kenya law, it is difficult to see how it could be introduced into an exchange of Notes. On the other hand, the fact that no mention is being made of it now will place argument in the hands of the Chinese, if there is ever a question of one of their nationals or companies wanting to buy a plot in the Kenya Highlands.
The Foreign Office idea of dealing with this question,as recorded in Mr. Monson's minute of the 4th November, does not begin to appreciate the difficulty, and I suggest that it should be explained to them more precisely. We are not really concerned with the possibility of a Chinese wanting to buy land in the Highlands (though that should by no means be ruled out), but with the possibility that when this Treaty and the exchange of Notes are made public, as presumably they must be, either the Kenya settlers will accuse H.M.G. of having broken faith with them, by acquiescing in a breach of the white Highlands principle, or Indians, whether in East Africa or in India itself, will call for the abandonment of the ban upon Indians owning land in the Highlands, since we shall have formally conceded the principle to Chinese who are not members of the British Commonwealth.
Whether one likes the white Highlands policy or not, it is definitely at the moment a policy to which H.M.G. is pledged in Kenya and which the Secretary of State cannot concede without the prospect of serious difficulties with the white population in that Colony. We are therefore entitled to press the Foreign Office, having explained the problem as above, to try and find some means of dealing with this Treaty problem without raising embarrassment for our Secretary of State in what is a major factor in East African politics. If the draft at 76 is the best that can be done it would be far better from
to have our point of view for no exchange of Notes at all and leave the matter as it stands in Article 6 of the draft Treaty. But if the Foreign Office are unable
to/
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