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could not make any appointment with him or discuss any political matters without the sanction of His Majesty's Government. But that if the Governor-General happened to be in Hongkong and wish- -ed to call upon me I would not refuse to see him.
14. Next day His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton came at my invitation to stay with me for the night in order that I might learn from him what his view of the situation
at Canton is. Mr. J. V. Jamieson told me that he had no confi-
-dence whatever in the Governor-General who was without
experience of administration and apparently of no capacity. When I related to him the conversation I had had with Sir Kai Ho Kai
and Mr. Wei Yuk he expressed the opinion that with a Hon-man at its head the present administration was not worth bolstering up.
Given a strong Governor-General with some previous training in
administration he would support an application for the assistance
indicated.
14.15 Kr. Jamieson expressed the opinion that al-
-though Chan Kwing-ming and Lung Chai-kwong might transfer their allegiance to a new aspirant for the reins of Government at Canton,they could control the populace and keep order. I confess that I take a less hopeful view of the possible result of a move- -ment to upset the existing Government. The situation is really dominated by the financial difficulty and if funds are no longer available, by whomsoever the taxes are levied, to pay the troops in something better than depreciated paper, the soldiers may endeavour to set up a Government of their om. The result might be much worse than the existing unsatisfactory condition and with a Cantonese mob in the ascendency it is impossible to fore- -cast what extravagances it might not commit. It is possible that a conflict with the existing authorities might result in one side or the other adopting anti-foreign measures in order to provoke foreign interference if only for the discomfiture of its
victorious