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might be able to come to terms with the Cantonese about
the repair and working of the line. Sir C. Clementi
expressed the fear that it was very unlikely that they
would be able to do so. The Director General insisted on
his point about Mr. Chen going to Hong Kong. Sir C.
Clementi said he wanted it to be understood that there
was nothing personal in his attitude. He would be
delighted to welcome Mr. Chen (who had been sent to Mukden
by the Ministry of Communications to meet His Excellency)
in Hong Kong and if Mr. Chen were successful in arranging
matters with the Cantonese, he, Sir C. Clementi, would be
only too pleased. But he must warn the Director General
and Mr. Chen that the Cantonese authorities were not easy people to deal with; the last Manager of the Chinese
Telegraph Office in Hong Kong who had gone to Canton had
been arrested by the Cantonese who had imprisoned him and tried thus to blackmail him into giving up his seal,
which had consequently been taken over and since retained
by His Excellency; he hoped that Mr. Chen would have
better luck; but if he, Mr. Chen, came to Hong Kong and found it was impossible to do anything with the Cantonese,
His Excellency hoped that the Director General would then
agree with him that the best thing to do, in the interests
of all concerned, was to close the office and work by
wireless, pending the time when banditry and piracy should have been suppressed and China unified, when all these difficulties over the working of the Chinese Telegraph Office in Hong Kong would disappear.
Mr. Wang endeavoured to explain that the division of the Chinese Telegraph Administration was more apparent than real; that is to say although one place might be in
the hands of the North and another in the hands of the
South, telegraphic communication was maintained without
trouble