:
"Attach to Soo. H. Kong
12894/16
Sus. Wilson
567
Mr.Mounsey and Mr.Patrick of the Foreign Office, Sir John Jamieson, Mr.Clutterbuck and I
discussed Sir C.Clementi's despatch of
26 May 1926
As a result we
1594/16 this morning. prepared the accompanying draft telegram. The draft is being submitted to Sir Austen Chamberlain
and I would ask for authority to agree to any changes of wording, not involving any point of substantial importance which the Foreign Office may suggest in
consequence.
We discussed the negotiations generally, but
did not discover any further point on which we though we could usefully send any instructions at this stage. It was agreed that the amount and conditions of the loan must await the development of
the negotiations, but the general impression was that
the loan would not be so much a genuine effort to promote public works in Kwang Tung as a face-saving expedient, and it would therefore probably be ex- pedient that the first instalment should be small. Sir John Jamieson thought they would probably employ a substantial portion of the money in finding work for the "strikers", subject of course to the usual "squeeze", and that we had better not concern
ourselves with any effort to see that the money was honestly applied. He seemed to think that the Cantanese would be satisfied if they got £50,000.
We could of course well afford to throw that sum
away for a settlement.
·
The suggested toen of officials is of course
Mily put forward in came the Chinese ask
for it. If they do
we should like.