Co
SECRET.
Jes to:
Peking No. 83.
Canton No.337
30001₤
77
RECEIVED
17 OCT 1927 COL. OFFICE
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG. 15th September, 1927.
Sir,
no15
Aud Secret
17 NOV 1927
In my despatch Secret (2) of 1st September,
1927, I expressed the opinion that General Li Chai-sum,
having returned to Canton after a period of watchful waiting
at a distance, had decided that he was firm enough in the
saddle to apply the whip and spur. Subsequent events
continue to confirm that view. In the first place, no
sooner had the bankers and merchants surrendered to the
method of armed robbery used by the Cantonese Authorities
for extracting a loan, than it was announced that the chief
author of this scheme, Mr. Ku Ying-fan, the provincial
Finance Commissioner, had been dismissed and even that his
arrest had been ordered. Various reasons have been
announced for this step, but the most probable seem to be
that Mr. Ku is not regarded by General Li as a congenial
colleague, that he persists in his attachment to the Nanking
party and that he appropriated (so it is said) some two
millions of the forced loan for the use of the nationalist
forces on the Yangtsze. Be that as it may, it is certainly
the fact that Mr. Ku disappeared hastily from Canton with
as many of his satellites in the Treasury as could get away.
So far as relations between Canton and this Colony are
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S. AMERY, M.P.,
concerned,
&c.,
&C.,
&c.