3
Despatch from H. E. the Governor Hong Kong to
Secretary of State for Colonies.
GOVERNMENT House,
N.B.—This Sessional Paper includes two Despatches, dated 18th February,
1926, from the Governor of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
amplified by notes on freak enars, and by further particulars of former cases where the lapse of time has led to further information being available.
Sir,
Hosa Koxa, |8th February, 1926.
In continuation of my previous despatches on the subject of the boycott and poli- tical strike declared by Canion against British interests in Hong Kong and South China I have the honour to draw your attention to the manner in which treaty rights have been in- fringed during the course of those two movements.
2. These breaches of treaty rights are all the more intolerable because Hi Majesty's Government, actuated by feelings of the greatest friendliness and goodwill to- wards China, have quite recently recognised that the treaties between tireat Britain and China need revision, and representatives of His Majesty's Government are now actually engaged in conference with the representatives of China and of other powers in consider- ing, inter alia, that very revision. One would have expected at this jubeture a scrupulous. observance of existing treaty rights instead of the present flagrant disregard of the most reasonable treaty obligations.
3. The contrast in this respect between the Government of Canton and the an. thorities of C'entral and North China is very marked. The Canton tovernment, inspired by Bolshevist intrigue and animated by the Bolshevist ideat of creating disorder in every territory but its own, naturally seizes on this opportunity of endeavouring to create an atmosphere unfavourable to friendliness and conciliation.
4. The present ill-timed attack by the Canton Government on our normal treaty relations is evidently a deliberate attack directed against the British Empire. The people of Canton had no grievance against Hong Kong but they are compelled to maintain a hoy- cott against this Colony. The working classes of Hong Kong had no complaint against their employers or the conditions of their employment but they were led by specious words and driven by criminal terrorism into a strike which was maintained only by means of the most drastic picketing and which has since collapsed in spite of that picketing. That strike, as has been admitted by the Canton Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, was instituted "not for economic reasons but as a protest against the British Government The bruzi of the onset is borne by Hong Kong, but the attack is aimed at, and will be felt by. British trade and British shipping generally. That this violent and unjustified disturbance of our long established and mutually advantageous commercial relations will cause loss to the merchants of Hong Kong, of England, and of Canton, alike, is evidently regarded with equanimity by the Government of Canton.
5. The Canton Government is clearly responsible for these breaches of treaty rights. Apart from its responsibility as the de facto Government of the province there is ample evidence that it is in full sympathy with, and that it actually supports the Strike Coin- mittee by which the strike was kept up till it failed and by which the boycott is still being maintained.
6. The following are the chief treaty provisions which have been infringed, with instances to illustrate how they have been infringed. I have arranged the treaty provi sions and the infringements in parallel columns :—
TREATY OF NANKIN.
Article I.
Peace and Friendship. Protection of Persons and
Property.
There shall henceforward be peace and friendship between Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of
(a) Short of actual hostilities and capture of shipping, the Canton Government practically maintains a state of war against Hong Kong and British shipping and British interests.
(b) British shipping is denied the facilities of the port at Canton and Swatow.
*(c) British subjects at Canton, if they leave Shamien, are at any moment liable to be arrested for breaches of the Strike Committee's Rules.
*Particulars of a case in point are printed at the end of this despatch. See Note 1.
412