T
Despl
CONFIDENTIAL.
t
C.0.
6040
354
24 FEB 13,
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG, 31st. January, 1913.
Sir,
Que 70.1136
-age of your permission to visit Canton on the 24th. instant in
order to call on the Tutu by arrangement which led to his inviting me and those with me to luncheon. I was accompanied by the Colonial Secretary (Mr. A. M. Thomson) and by my Private Secretary and Aide-de-Camp and His Lajesty's Consul-Generì and Vice-Consul
went with me to the Tutu's Yamen and were guests at the luncheon party which included the principal Heads of Departments in Canton. I found the Tutu looking thinner and somewhat more worn and his conversation lacked the sanguine tone evinced at our meeting last
summer. I was in his company for nearly 3 hours yet he did not
allow his remarks to pass the limit of topics of general conversa- -tion. The Minister for the Interior acted as Interpreter and it
was he who on this occasion indulged in references to somewhat
grandiose schemes of improvement in the City of Canton. A discreet
feeler on my part as to the provision of funds for such matters as
compensation for the resumption of private property for the purpose
of constructing wide streets met with no satisfactory reply.
Towards the close of my visit I ventured to
ask the Tutu for some explanation of the steps taken in Hongkong
apparently at the instance of his Government for the purpose of
nominating electors to go to Peking for the election of representa-
I have the honour to report that I took advant-
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,
&C.,
&C..
&o...
-tives