COPY
PRINTED FOR
USE
Eastern
COLONIAL
No 104
OFFIC
Enclosure No. 2.
3
258
COPY
From
To
No. 64
TELEGRAM.
H.M. Consul General, Canton.
H.M. Minister, Peking.
Despatched July 19th, 1926. Code.
Confidential.
My telegram No. 63.
Negotiations began on July 15th with an opening address by Hinister for Foreign Affairs welcoming British delegation and expressing hope in general terms that settlement would be reached which, while assuring to
British nationals friendly and profitable market in South China, would enable Chinese people as represented by nationalist government to continue unhindered with work of unifying and modernizing China.
Conference then adjourned to following day when Chinese delegation produced long written statement
giving their views on origin of boycott which they trace back to what they describe as massacre at Shanghai on May 30th and in course of which they try to fix on the British the responsibility for the Canton incident
of June 23rd.
A
Before putting forward any proposals for a settlement
they desired to have our views on this statement of the
case which they proposed to publish. We protested that
to conduct negotiations in the press would inflame public
opinion and make an amicable settlement of controversial points extremely difficult but Mr. Chên insisted on what he called the how diplomacy. We accordingly prepared a
written reply refuting the allegations made against the
British