13 Se
trouble between the two offices, while in many cases offices in remote provinces like Yunnan still dealt with the Telegraph Administration of the Peking Ministry of
Communications.
Sir C. Clementi said that that did not apply to the case of Hong Kong, which was foreign neutral
territory.
In the end the Director General and his advisors
left saying that they would give the matter further
consideration, but the understanding seemed to be that
Mr. Chen would proceed to Hong Kong and a definite decision allowed to stand over pending the receipt of his report. Sir C. Clementi repeated that he would be very pleased to welcome Mr. Chen in Hong Kong, though
His Excellency did not for a moment think he would be
to
able do anything with the Cantonese. His Excellency repeated at the end of the interview that his main desire
was to facilitate telegraphic communication between
Hong Kong and Canton and that the existing difficulties which they were trying to surmount were certainly not due to any lack of goodwill on his part.
(Intd.) E. T.
15th November, 1927.