ny further communication
subject, please quote
No.
ddreas
F 3510/3/10.
not to any person by name,
to-
The Under-Secretary of State,'
Foreign Ofee,
Landon, S. W. 1.
C.O.
50€75
FOREIGN OFFICE,
S.7.1.
23 001 24
27th October, 1924.
356
Le-::
Sir,
I am directed by Mr. Secretary Ramsay HacDonald
to transmit to you, herewith,copies of a telegram from His Majesty's Minister at Peking, o.298 of the 20th instant, from which it will be seen that the Canton
Government contemplate the forcible seizure of the
Customs Houses at ports under their control and that they
threaten to declare Canton a free port.
2. It will be remembered that similar threats were
made on previous occasions, the last such occasion being
in 1923. Copies of the ensuing correspondence
between this department and His Majesty's Minister at Peking were enclosed in Foreign Office letter F 2823/2823/10
of the 8th October of that year.
3. On each occasion arrangements appear to have been made direct between His Majesty's Minister, the
Commander in Chief on the China Station and the Governor
of Hongkong for the eventual carrying out of counter measures in case of necessity. It seems desirable in the present instance also to leave it to Sir R. Macleay, as suggested in his telegram No.298, to make similar arrangements in conjunction with his colleagues, and tele- graphic instructions are being sent to him in this sense. It is hoped that the Secretary of State for the Colonies
will concur in the action taken.
19751
23
Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
4.