TEL
FOR
USE
Q
NAL OFFICE
R
30013?
38.
46
SECRET
Copies to:
Canton No. 251.
Peking No.
{
Hmg Kong
D
28.
RECEIVED
1-9 AUG 1927
ICOL. OFFICEHONGKONG.
Sir,
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
7th July, 1927.
I am informed that the picketing of the
British river steamers at Canton, mentioned in
paragraph 3 of my secret despatch of the 30th June,
has been terminated by the abject surrender of the Company (Hong Kong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Com- pany, Limited) to the demands of the Canton Seamen's Union. The position is typical of the recent actions of this Company. Without consulting either myself
or any officer of my Government, and I believe without consulting its own Directorate as a whole, the Managing Director decided at a most inopportune
moment and in a most unfortunate way to challenge
the Union's power. The moment was inopportune on account of its proximity to the anniversary of the Shakee incident of 1925. As I pointed out in paragraph 2 of the despatch referred to above, the expurgated Kuomintang regime in Canton was ex- periencing the greatest difficulty in avoiding the charge of being counter-revolutionary and pro- imperialist, and its Communist enemies were making the fullest use of the approach of the 23rd June
to rouse
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S. AMERY, M.P.,
&C.,
* No. 3000!
&c.,
28.
&C.