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public works programme has been revised it should be possible to make a very considerable retrenchment in the staff of the Public Works Department.
Similar retrenchment is going on in private firms and Companies. The Stock Exchange remains closed, and in every direction the customary activities of the business community are reduced to a minimum.
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7. I telegraphed to you on the 27th August that the coastal navigation rules, referred to in 42959 para. 5 of my despatch of the 21st August, had been
repudiated by the Canton Authorities. I enclose
Your 12957
Ab
Closure A..
42959
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& translation of a notice recently served on a merchant in Canton which furnishes additional
evidence if such were needed, that the boycott against everything British is officially supported. A British river steamer, belonging to the
Hongkong Canton and Macao Steamboat Company, was
despatched to Canton on the 3rd September, having on board
a strong anti-piracy guard but not otherwise armed. The boat took same 200 passengers and a little miscellaneous cargo, and it is reported that she duly reached Canton and is now
on her way back.
8. The situation in Canton is obscure. The
assassination of Lui Chung-hoi, referred to in the
concluding paragraph of my last despatch, at once deprived the Bolshevist cause of its principal
Cantonese supporter, and also caused something akin to panic among the other Bolshevist leaders.
Steps were at once taken to arrest those suspected
of being luke-warm, Mr. fu Hon -man, the Commissioner
for Foreign Affairs, being among the number, and a military