- 6 -
122
of which he was then a member. Shanghai was looked upon as the principal intermediate objective between Canton and Peking. The plans to be put into operation on the arrival of the Nationalist forces here ware formulated in the view that Shanghai is the great stronghold of foreigners in China, and that any success- ful measures taken here, from the Chinese standpoint, would be found to have their due effect elsewhere
It is sometimes difficult when talking about
anti-foreignia to Chinese to get them to differentiate
clearly between foreigners generally and the British in
particular. In this case, however, it would seem that
notwithstanding the feeling manifested by the Chinese
in Canton and Hongkong for the last seventeen months being purely anti-British, the Nationalist movement as a whole, of which the Cantonese are the militant
champions at this time, is aimed equally at the treaty privileges of all foreigners without distinction as
to country of origin.
What the Nationalists might endeavour to do here is indicated to some extent by what they have already done in Canton, Human and Hupah where, accord- ing to latest reports, conditions are gradually becoming worse. What they actually plan to do, according to my informant, is to bring about a complete paralysis of local trade and industry. This is to be accomplished by intensive pickating, boycotts and strikes among all classes of labour, in the expectation that in due time
the