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is that all our recent troubles are due to the fact
that His Majesty's Goverment did not use force
against the Cantonese in last September, and I,
apparently, am in some degree responsible for this
alleged weakness. I accepted assurances from
"Comrade Chen that the boycott would be stopped,
and I "suspended further action by the british Navy"
in Canton in order to resume conversations with the
said "Comrade", from which point onwards "everything
has gone wrong".
4.
Whether hostilities with the Canton Govern-
ment in September last would have had all the beno-
ficial results claimed by His Excellency is a very
doubtful question on which I will not enter now, but
a point on which neither of us was left, in any doubt
whatsoever is that his Majesty's Government absolute-
ly declined to contemplate such hostilities, whether
the boycott were terminated or not. This was made
clear in telegram after telegram, As two examples
among many, I would refer to the messages from the
Colonial Office to the Governor and from the Foreign
office to the Minister at Feking, which pointed out
the impossibility of the Governor's warlike proposals
and stated that unless any fresh measures of a
practicable nature could be suggested by the Acting
Consul-General at Canton or the Governor of hongkong
it must