be aware.
The visits which are under discussion with Paking
cannot be held to fall within this category.
The Department accepts that Sir Donald Hopson may have a
legitimate point here, although we must await the Governor's
comment before passing any judgment. However, we cannot accept
(nor, we think, would the Far Eastern Department of the Foreign
office accept) Sir Donald's assertion at the end of paragraph 2 of
his telegram that "we could almost curtainly have secured accoss
to Grey". There is the unhappy possibility at the back of our
minds all the time that the Chinese are not sincere in trying
to reach an agreement on trading these visits and are only
concerned to see how far they can push us in the matter of
concessions, i.e. their purpose is to assess how valuable Mr. Grey
is to us.
*
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.