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us particularly interesting and regarding which we had
hoped for some further information from the Hongkong
authorities, but paragraph 3 of Mr. Hallifax's minute is
not very informative and Mr. T.H.King throws no further
light on this particular point, viz. the possible connexion
between Chen Chiung-ming and/or some of his henchmen, such
as Lo Kwang and Wong Fu-chi, with the Bias Bay and other
gangs of pirates.
Mr. Hallifax further criticises Commander Faure's
account of the "Hav" incident. He says that the
statement that the whole Merchant Volunteer scheme was
engineered by financiers from Hongkong should be
substantiated or withdrawn. I doubt whether it is desirable
or possible now to elicit the truth regarding this incident, which has redounded (perhaps unjustly) to our considerable
discredit. But you will remember that no less a person
than the late Mr. A.G.Stephen, of the Hongkong and
Shanghai Bank, was very favourable to this movement, and believed that the Hongkong Government was also favourable
to it. I know that Sir R. Stubbs failed to understand
how Mr. Stephen could have formed his opinion (Colonial
Office letter 7647/25 of February 20th, 1925,) but
if /