#42 CONFIDENTIAL.
37698
751
RECT REG 9
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG.
22nd June, 1916,
Sir,
32779
With reference to my Confidential Despatch of
the 31st ultimo, I have the honour to transmit the enclosed
copy of a translation of a despatch, which I have not acknowledg-
-ed, addressed to me by the Military Council which has been
established in name only for the Goverment of the rebellious
provinces of Yunnan, Kweichow, Kwangsi and Kwangtung.
I have received another despatch from the same
source containing copies of voluminous regulations governing the Military Council. I do not think it is worth troubling
you with translations of these.
No practical steps have been taken to call the Military Council into active life in the Kwangtung Province. But the contimed presence of Sham Teen-huen one of its most prominent members at Shiu Hing on the West River is still a disturbing factor militating against the restoration of the
Province to a normal condition.
2.
There is no improvement in the trade of the Colony with the Province which is so over-run by robbers that even the salt smugglers in foreign territory adjacent to the Province cannot ply their lucrative trade in the face of the enormous exactions imposed by robber bands in China.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ANDREW BONAR LAW, M.P.,
&c..
&c., 80...
3.