ENCLOSURE NO. 7.
BRITISH CHAMBER OF COERCE.
CANTON, December 15th, 19262
W.H. Bell Esq.,
52
Chairman, China Committee,
Hong Kong.
Dear Sir,
With reference to the question as to how far and
how strongly Russian influence has penetrated the Canton
Government ideals and to what extent its influence is paramount,
we would at the outset point out that the question is an
exceedingly difficult one to answer and there must be a
divergence of opinion.
It is difficult to assess actual Russian adviser's
influence but Russian Communist ideas are rampant, the shops
are full of Bolshevist books, the general tendency is towards full Communism and one of our members (lir. Lang) who has lived in Vladivostock during the period of revolution describes the situation here as uncommonly similar to that witnessed during
the time 1917 to 1922.
To instance what we mean as to the general trend of policy, we would cite the following cases which have been reported to members of this Comittee and although we have not the means of satisfying ourselves as to their authenticity we believe the information to be substantially correct:-
Socialisation of Industries- examples, the taking
over of a private undertaking, such as the Canton at works without compensation of any sort, the ultimatum to the Canada Bus Company that they shall pay a tax of $10.- per month per bus, and $7.- per day for each bus run.
The Bus Company stated that they could not run the bustes on such conditions and faced the retort that if they did not do so, the Government would take over and run the buses without compensation to the Bus Company for the use of their
property.