A
OP Y.
Sir,
C.O
Hr. Jameson to H. M. Chargé d'Affaires, 2éking1
June 20,
1913.
14 JUL 13
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your despatch No. 15 of June 7th. and of your telegram No. 16
of June 19th. on the subject of the Green Island Cement Company's
supply of limestone. In accordance with the instructions contained
in the latter a copy of my telegram of yesterday in reply has been
sent to His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, to whom I am also
sanding a copy of this report.
As I have already had the honour to inform the
Legation, all endeavours to arrive at a settlement with regard to this matter locally have failed, owing to the determination of the Industrial Commissioner not to abandon, so long as he can avoid doing so by sheltering himself behind a verbal quibble, the lucrative monopoly, which he and the Directors of the Canton Cement Works share between them. Nor is this surprising if one considers his position. He came here in the traing of the late Tu Tu Hu: he is not elected by the people and although his appoint- -ment was subsequently confirmed by the President, he cannot be said really to enjoy a permanent official status or to care very much for dismissal from office. Peculation in the Government departments of this province is said by well-informed Chinese to be on a ten times greater scale than under the old regime, and everyone from the Tu Tu downwards has been turning his temporary tenure of office
to his own advantage, in some cases not without conspicuous success. Sir Henry Hay's proposal to close the Hongkong market to Canton Dement would, it is true, inflict a serious blow on the monopoly, but there are other outlets elsewhere, and the danger of retalia- -tion on the part of Kuangtung, whence llongkong derives all its food supplies, would, in the event of a popular agitation being stirred up, be very great. Apart, therefrom, there are two alter- -native courses, both of which I venture to hold impossible
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