15th November, 1927.
168
Dear Mr. Chiang Tsun-wei,
In confirmation of our conversation to-day, I
write to say that Mr. Ch'ên Ch'ing-wên will be acceptable
to the Hongkong Government as officer in charge of the
Chinese Telegraph Office, provided that he is equally
acceptable to the Canton Authorities. If, however, his
appointment proved to be unacceptable to the Canton
Authorities, the Hongkong Government would have no course
open to it but to close down the Chinese Telegraph Office
in Hongkong. Such closure would not be a breach by the
Hongkong Government of the 1884 agreement.
The 1884
Agreement has already been broken, not by the Hongkong
Government but by the breach between the Peking and the
Canton Authorities. The closure would merely mark the
determination of the Hongkong Government not to be drawn
into the civil conflict now unhappily raging between
various contending Chinese authorities.
I see little hope under existing circumstances
that the appointment of Mr. Ch'en or of any other nominee
of the Peking Government would prove acceptable to the
Canton authorities, and I therefore suggest with great
respect that the course most consonant with the dignity of
your Department would be to send Mr. Ch'ên to Hongkong with
instructions to close down the Chinese Telegraph Office there.
In that case I would hand over the seal of the Office to him
and he could take it back to Peking. This seal has been in
my personal custody for safety's sake since a previous nominee
of the Peking Government in charge of the Hongkong Office was
seized by the Canton Authorities while on a visit to Canton and
informed that he would not be released unless he handed over
Mr. Chiang Teun-wei,
Department of Telegraphs,
Ministry of Communications,
the/
Peking.