sinds

284

SIR R. STUBBS

212

Colonial office

11 6, 1922

1496 1:577

A

Sir R. Stubbs proposed, in a telegram of March 26, 1922, that His Majesty's Government should approve a private loan by a bank to Chen Chiung Ming, Governor of Canton, to consolidate his position against Sun Yat sen, who, it was anticipated, would try to oust him from

power.

The Foreign Office informed the Colonial office that His Majesty's Government should not countenance

loans to Chen Chiung Ming or any other steps savouring

of intervention in quarrels of Chinese military leaders,

It was further pointed out that financial assistance

to one political party would imply recognition of that

party and be irreconcilable with the neutral attitude

hitherto adopted by His Majesty's Government.

In reporting on the history and origin of the

Hongkong Strike of January and February 1922 Sir J.

Jamieson, Consul General at Canton commented strongly on the "abysmal" ignorance of the Hongkong Government

with regard to the affairs of the adjacent provinces

in China and their underestimation of the hostile forces

developing on the mainland. He considered that prior

to the strike the animosity of Canton for the Hongkong

Government had been needlessly increased by certain un-

fortunate incidents and the general disposition of the

latter to treat the Province as a suburb of the Colony;

and that a desire to humiliate their arrogant neighbour

was largely responsible for the sympathetic attitude

towards...

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