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74
1
no39.
over the Asiatic Petroleum Company's convoy. With
General Li Chai-sum in his policy of Canton for the Cantonese is General Li Fuk-lam (see my secret des- patch of the 14th July). But there are other can-
didates on the same platform, namely Generals Ch'an Kwing-ming and Ngai Pong-p'eng, both Kuangtung men
and sworn foes of Marshal Tseung Kai-shek and his
clique.
2.
Here we meet with a puzzle which is in-
soluble on present information. Recently the Canton
Authorities applied to me through the Consul General at Canton in very polite terms for the return of a
gunboat named "Kwong Ching", which took refuge in Hong Kong during October 1925 and was interned, the
armament and parts of the machinery being taken over
by the Hong Kong Police. The vessel had been manned
by adherents of General Ch'an Kwing-ming and was
understood to belong to him in the way that Chinese
naval units often do belong to individual commanders. To my surprise General Ch'an, who is still in Hong Kong, promptly furnished the envoys from Canton with
a written waiver of all claim to the vessel in their
favour and she was accordingly released and returned
to Canton. At the same time Lo Kwan, a well-known
adherent of General Ch'an, who for a long time defied
the Tseung Kai-shek regime in the area between Mirs
Bay and Bias Bay, and who is repeatedly mentioned in
my secret despatches on the subject of the Bias Bay
piracies, re-appeared in Hong Kong and informed the
Police that he had been invited to take up an official
post under the Canton Government and that several
other equally well-known adherents of General Ch'an
were