343
Vide attached 3 po
my conversation with the Tutu and I asked them whether the Chinese
Community wished to have a voice in the election of the proposed
representatives of Chinese residing abroad. I said that I was not in favour of the Chinese in Hongkong mixing themselves up in Chinese politics but that if the Chinese Community really desired
a voice in the elections I would lay the matter before you for
your decision.
From what lessrs. Lau Chu-pak and Un Kam-wa
told me and from subsequent enquiries by the Registrar-General it
appears (a) that the majority of the Chinese Community would like
to have a voice in the election, but they would like to exercise
this privilege on their own responsibility and not at the dicta-
-tion of political wire pullers; (b) that what the Canton Authori-
-ties desired was to debar the Chinese Merchants of Hongkong,
except so far as they are embers of the Tung lng Wui, from a
voice in the elections; (c) that the object of the establishment
of this Principal Society at the instigation of the Government of
Kwangtung was to ensure the election of a member of the Tung lăng
Wui as elector. It appears that only two Societies in Kanadang
and Hongkong are entitled to nominate electors viz.:- a certain Reading Club, a branch of the Tung Ming Wui and the old establish- -ed Chinese Commercial Union. The Reading Club is not known to
this Government. It is therefore a Secret Society. It is controll-
ed by the Government of Kwangtung. The Commercial Union has been long established in Hongkong but is somewhat disorganised and has
lost much of its former influence. It is not under the control
of the Kwangtung Government. The object of the latter is, there- -fore, to establish a new Society recognised by the Kwangtung Government as having power to nominate an elector. Thus the Kwang- -tung Government hoped to obtain the nomination of two electors belonging to the Tung King Wui, or Nationalist Party, of which Sun Yat-sen is President and Wu Hon-man (Governor-General of Kwangtung) Vice-President. (See my Confidential Despatch of 2rd. 4791213 instant
वा
ultimo). This intrigue was clearly disclosed by a request being
7204
made to Mr. Lau Chu-pak after the meeting on the 3rd. of January
to