215
200,
1923
564,
1923
1464
F1628
for money to maintain himself. The Governor proposed
therefore to lend him $2,000,000. The Consul General
at Canton had pointed out the awkward position in
which this would place us, if Sun proved after all suc-
cessful, but the Governor did not consider that such
"academic" objections should be allowed to prevail,
and urged that "the utmost endeavours should be made
to destroy finally Sun's influence, as he was a danger
to civilisation."
In due course the Colonial Office were again in-
formed with reference to the above telegram that His
Majesty's Government should refrain from any interven-
tion in the factious quarrels of the Chinese military
leaders.
The next document on this subject is a telegram of
February 20, 1923 from Sir R. Stubbs with reference to
a proposal by the Singapore Authorities to suppress
Sun's political party, the Kuo Min Tang. The Governor
of Hongkong now deprecated this policy, and stated that Sun Yat Sen, who recently lunched with him, had changed
his views and desired to be on good terms with the
Colony.
On May 9th, 1923 Sir R. Stubbs telegraphed that
bun had asked for the loan of British experts to assist
In the reorganisation of certain departments in his government, and the Governor urged that there could be no reasonable objection to the proposal.
The Foreign Office, however, after consulting Sir R. Macleay, expressed the opinion that compliance with Sun's request would be regarded generally as a measure
of....
J