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I saw Sir William Tyrrell about this to-day.
I said it was impossible to do anything in the matter just now in the absence of the Secretary of State and Sir James Masterton Smith, but that I would take it
up as soon as they returned. Sir W.Tyrrell was quite
content with this.
I put the view that any Governor of hongkong was bound to be influenced by the defacto masters of Canton for the time being. Hongkong was really part of
Kwang-tung and bound to keep in with the Cantonese. However incompatible with general policy they might be, the Governor was bound to put forward requests and
suggestions made to him on behalf of Kwang-tung; and
so long as neither he nor the Colonial Office took any
action without the approval of the Foreign Office no
harm was done. The Governor in fact was in the position
of a general in charge of a minor campaign in a big
war, bound to put forward demands for troops etc.,
although he knew the Government could not grant them.
Sir William Tyrrell said he had always
recognised the difficulties of the Governor of Hongkong
and had represented them to Lord Curzon. He did not
want to press any of the incidents in the Foreign
Office departmental memorandum or raise any controversy
over them. But he had been impressed by representations
made to him by Mr. Stephens of the Hongkong and Shanghai
Bank against Sir Edward Stubbs; and in the present
state of China, and still more in view of the general
crisis that may arise any day, he thought it essential
to have in Hongkong a man of tact and judgment who
could