No. 53
Copies to:- F.0.No.54
Hongkong No.65
Shanghai
Swatow
Sir,
H.B.M.Consulate General,
Canton,
May 24th, 1926.
19
With reference to your circular No. 33 of April 13th I have the honour to report that Lieutenant Colonel l'Estrange Malone, the correspondent of the "Daily Herald" arrived in Canton on May 15th and left again for Hongkong on May 23rd, on his way back to England.
2. He came to see me several times and he kept me informed of his doings and the people he interviewed. he stated that he was not a communist, although he once belonged to the Communist Party five or six years ago. He was now a member of the Labour Party and was at present making a tour of China in order to gather material for a series of articles on the development of the Chinese labour union movement and the direction in which it was tending.
He was entertained by the Canton government at
3.
a dinner and he visited a number of the officials, including General Chiang Kai-shek, he was taken to see at the Whampoa Military Academy. In answer to my enquiry regard- ing the impression made on him by the General, he replied that he divided these people into two classes; those who said frankly what was in their own minds,and the others who merely "put on a gramaphone record". General Chiang was of the gramaphone type, and confined himself to
emitting
His Majesty's Minister,
Peking.