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occupation.
This boycott was enforced by strike
pickets, who were really nothing but an organized
band of pirates and brigands, and whose acts of rob-
bery with violence were connived at by the Canton.
Soviet. Many attempts had been made by Canton to
induce Hong Kong to free itself from the boycott by
payment of blackmail and by accepting other humilia-
ting terms. All these attempts had failed: and
irritated by their failure the strike pickets at
Canton behaved with ever increasing violence. Finally
on the 1st September His Majesty's Government decided
that forcible British measures for the prevention of
acts of piracy by strike pickets were fully justified
and the Admiralty sent orders to Admiral Sir E.
Alexander-Sinclair to seize and disable the boats of
the strike pickets on the Canton waterways. (Foreign
Office telegram No. 19 to Canton, dated 1st September
1926). Accordingly on the 4th September all strike
pickets were swept off the Canton waterways by the
British Navy. This action frightened the Canton
Soviet, whose General Tseung Kai-shek at once sent
peremptory orders to Comrado Eugene Ch'en, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs at Canton, that he
must negotiate a settlement of the boycott. Accord-
ingly Comrade Ch'en hastened to assure Mr. J. F.
Brenan, the British Consul General at Canton, that
the
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