137
27
He
surbexes unconditionally not only to Canton, but to le
Peking Government and all other opposing factions. shared the apprehensions expressed in my telegram of
the 28th October. He thought that it would be a dan-
gerous policy to be stampeded into accepting these il-
legal taxes, with no assurance either that they would
not be increased or that it would be possible to
regularise them by subsequent agreement, but on the
contrary with the practical certainty that our acquies- cence would lead to our hands being forced similarly by
other regional authorities in China. He considered that
it would be preferable for His Majesty's Government to
join in an emphatic protest against these illegal taxes and to await the result. (Peking telegram to Foreign Office No. 405 of the 1st November).
31.
The Hong Kong Government pointed out that
instructions had been given by lir. Edwardes to Colonel Hayley-Bell not to assist in collecting the new taxes unless assented to by the Powers; that the Powers now intended to make a joint protest against those taxes,
which therefore the Canton Commissioner of Customs would
presumably not oe allowed to collect. Consequently the
proposed intimation by Mr. Brenan to the Canton Govern-
ment that we would acquiesce in the taxes on condition that they were collected by the Customs would neither enable the Commissioner to collect them nor offer any-
hing tangible to the Canton Government. In these
circumstances I urged that the proposed intimation was very inadviable and would dissociate us from the other Powers to no purpose (Hong Kong telegram to Colonial
Office,