43
3. I was accompanied to the reception by Commander
M.L. Clarke, the Senior Naval Officer and we met there
General Teng Shih-cheng (
) the Chief of Police and
) in charge of the
Chief of Staff, Admiral Chan Chak (
Havy Department and Mr. Chu Chao-hsin, the Commissioner for
Foreign Affairs. Commander Clarke and I took the opportunity
of a long conversation with these officials when I handed them
the memorandum and tried to pin them down to some definite plan
of action in which British forces could co-operate. They
informed me verbally that they would not object to the co-
operation of British warships provided the nation of the latter
was confined to the sea and forces were not landed on Chinese
territory, but beyond promising that soldiers and ships would
immediately be sent to the spot, they would not give me any
definite information of their plans. They obviously did not
want to be committed to any scheme of co-operation with us. I
communicated the result of this interview to Hongkong in a
telegram of which a copy is enclosed.
4. On the following day a reply was received from
Hongkong stating that the Commodore would like further informa-
tion in order to co-operate effectively. I accordingly sent
Mr. Vice Consul Tuson once more to the Naval Headquarters to
try and extract something more definite. He was informed
that three gunboats the "Ping Nan," "Hai Pu" and "Kwong Kon"
had already been sent from Canton and more than a hundred
soldiers by land. No undertaking would be given about co-
oneration with the British forces. I then telegraphed to
Hongkong (copy enclosed) transmitting this reply and stating
that it was useless to expect any definite proposals from
Canton/