proposed from time to time with the object of buying
off the boycott. On the contrary we were convinced
that no settlement of the boycott could be honour-
able or lasting unless the so-called "economic
weapon" was broken in the hands of the Canton Strike
Committee. We knew that the strike pickets were
nothing better than pirates and brigands: and we wel-
comed the decision of His Majesty's Government to
treat them as such. We much regretted Mr. Brenan's action, taken without consulting the Hong Kong
Government, in suspending further action by the British Navy at Canton and in resuming conversations with Comrade Ch'ên, in whose sincerity we had no
faith, We knew that the general effect of the boy- cott had been only slightly relieved by clearing
strike pickets off the waterways at Canton and that it
was the aim of the Canton Strike Committee, now that
its pickets had been driven off the river, to make the
boycott ashore as severe as possible. We knew also
that any relaxation of our naval action before the
boycott was entirely removed would be interpreted by
the Canton Soviet to mean that we shrank from the
consequences of such action. We, therefore, urged that our next step should be to demand within twenty- four hours an undertaking that all anti-British manifestations in all the territory controlled by the
Canton Government should cease forthwith and that
British ships on the Yangtsze and elsewhere should be
respected by Cantonese troops, failing which we would act as to us seemed proper. We believed that in view
of
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