105
3.
maintenance of the public peace.
The Wai-chiao-pu
requested that, owing to the internal disturbances
in China likely to be produced by the secret plot-
tings of such disaffected persons assembled at Hong Kong, the Governor of Hong Kong should be asked "to
exercise stricter control over these partisans and
to dissolve their secret organizations, in order to
prevent Hong Kong being utilized as a base from which to plot disturbances affecting the peace and good
order of China".
This request was passed on to my
predecessor, Sir R.E. Stubbs, without comment by
His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking in a letter
dated the 1st December, 1922.
5.
Sir R.E. Stubbs after careful inquiry replied
on the 29th December, 1922, as follows:- "I shall be
glad if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be informed
that the policy of this Government has always been to
prevent as far as possible Hong Kong from being made
a focus of political intrigue, but that the position
is difficult, as it would be contrary to British
traditions to deny the hospitality of the Colony to
political refugees so long as they give no overt
cause for complaint, and, as a rule, no evidence is
forthcoming of any definite acts to which objection
could be taken". His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires
at Peking passed on this reply, without comment or
addition, to the Wai-chiao-pu on the 10th January,
1923. The sanctuary principle, so laid down and
conditioned, has since been adhered to by this Govern- ment; and I attach a list prepared by the Captain
Superintendent of Police of prominent Chinese poli-
ticians from Canton, who have resided in Hong Kong
at