-3=
49
Commissioner for Foreign Affairs from addressing to
His Majesty's Consul-General a highly impertinent
protest against the proscription of the General Labour
Union in Hong Kong, reported in paragraph 4 of my secret despatch of the 1st April A more elaborate declaration on the subject is contained in the attached extract from
Enclo. No, the lian Kwok Yat Po, Canton, of the 4th April. Attention
Sups
is invited to the frank admissions contained in the
It is,
petition addressed to Comrade Fugene Ch'en. It is
precisely because the organization in Hong Kong, was a branch of a notoriously extreme Labour organization in Canton, had taken an active part in the strike of 1925 and was planning a fresh general strike, that it was proscribed and, if any further evidence is required, it can be found in the enclosure to paragraph of this despatch, issued by the parent body in Canton. of course, quite untrue that military forces were employed in the raid and closure which were carried out entirely by the Hong Kong Police. The proceedings of the Union were not stopped until after the election
because I was advised that the order of proscription
would not become legal until publication in the Gazette,
which could not take place until the evening of the 1st April. Also it was thought that the results of the election would in themselves justify our action.
They
did so.
The four Unions who headed the ballot are
violently anti-British. The Seamen's Union needs no further comment, and as regards the others, Wong Kam- Yuen, the pork-butcher, was treasurer and Ko Tsam, the
tea-house waiter, "entertainment officer" of the Canton
Strike Committee. The latter was particularly insolent to the Chinese merchants' delegation of January, 1926.
I may