104
There
have had the sympathies of many Hong Kong merchants.
The arms were seized by Sun Yat-Sen, to an
accompaniment of mild protests from the British
Consul, who knew the whole affair to be fishy and could not therefore protest whole-heartedly.
can be no question that the prime movers in this
gun-running were officials of the Hong Kong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation, although it remains
a mystery how far the higher officials of the Bank
knew about the affair. Some of them, too, believed.
it to have official sanction, although there was no
foundation for this belief. Moreover, the Consul
General gave a very strong hint that a member of the
International Customs Administration was also
concerned, and there was every excuse for the
followers of Sun Yat Sen regarding the whole affair
as a conspiracy by "the British." This also,
however, is ancient history, and even if it were
worth while it would be impossible to discover the
truth of it now. It was an unfortunate affair,
but no fault of the Hong Kong Government, who
were prepared to seize the arms if the "Hav" had
passed through Hong Kong.
The Foreign office very rightly say that the "Hav" and similar incidents played their part in
producing the anti-British feeling of 1925, but on Commander Faure's own showing this has nothing to
do with piracy because he says the Kuomintang would
not have co-operated in piracy suppression since they
could not spare troops to gain control of Bias Bay,
the one thing it was essential for them to do. 30
the whole memorandum seens pointless; Hong Kong aid wrong, but things wouldhave been no better if they
had