This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.
(F.6117/2/10).
CHINA
448
Cypher telegram to Sir R.Macleay, (Peking),
Foreign Office,
No.382.
December 31st 1925. 10.0 a.m.
You will have seen from my immediately preceding telegram that we are inclined to make considerable sacrifices to reach a practical policy of provincial allocation. In other words we consider that Peking'B reign is over and that independent or semi-independent administrations are forming round principal revenue- collecting centres, viz., Manchuria, Tientsin, Hankow, Shanghai, Canton.
Are we to continue to support a fictitious government at Feking? Or are we to break with the past and through allocation of revenues attempt to assist evolution on federal basis?
Choice of one of these alternatives is essential to stabilise our China policy, and I request your observations by telegraph.