CO129-588-23 China- British extra-territorial rights- negotiations with China 28-3-1942 - 27-11-1942 — Page 63

conflict with Article 3 of the Convention of

flict

St. Germain (Treaty series, 1919, No. 18) and would

conceivably have been challenged by Japan,

which was a party to that Convention.

But

Accordingly

the reservation of land to Europeans is not

expressly prescribed in any Kenya Ordinance; but

there is a provision in their land laws that

transfere of land between persons of different

races must be notified to the Commissioner of

Lands, and may be vetoed by the Governor in Council. The

Government is thus enabled to prevent, by administrative

action, the alienation of land in the Highlands to

non-Europeans.

It seems fairly clear that any agreement

with China, whether by Treaty or by exchange of

Notes, which gave the Chinese nationals or companies

the right to acquire landed property in the Colonies

on a basis of reciprocity, would be incompatible with

our policy in Kenya. On the other hand, for the

reasons indicated above, it seems that we should be

precluded even if it was desirable, having regard to

the Congo Basin Treaties) from asking that the position

in Kenya should be specially safeguarded in any exchange

of Notes with the Chinese But in the absence of any such

safeguard, the Secretary of State is likely to be placed

in great difficulty with regard to the Kenya Europeans.

Our concernas not with the possibility that a Chinese

might successfully invoke the provisions of any new Treaty

to establish his right to buy land in the Kenya Highlands;

that is remote, though perhaps it should not be excluded

altogether. The danger is that the Europeans, when the

Treaty is published, will immediately accuse H.M.G. of a

breach of faith in acquiescing in the undermining of the

White Highlands policy; and if the settlers do not become

seized

of

the point at once, there is always the geribility

that it will be dragged into the limelight by a claim on the

part of Indians whether in India itself or in Kenya, that

the right which had been recognised in the case of China should/

,