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seems that Marshal Chiang has some misgivings that
these generals may leave their ship in Hong Kong
and try to make their way back to Kwangsi, of which
province all three are natives.
He has,
therefore, telegraphed to the Canton Government,
warning it that this may happen and asking that the
Hong Kong Government may be requested to keep watch
for these men and see that they go on to Europe and
do not return to Kwangsi. Mr. Chu, on behalf of
the Canton Government, asked me whether I could
do this. I replied that I had no legal power to
comply with such a request, and that the policy of
the Hong Kong Government has always been, and still
is, to afford asylum to Chinese refugees, provided
they do not use this Colony as a base for intrigue
against constituted authority in any part of China. I said, therefore, that the Hong Kong Government
would be able to do no more than watch the
movements of these three generals, if they
4.
decided to remain in Hong Kong, and that we should not be able to prevent them from going elsewhere.
I may say here that the Attorney General
has advised me that the right of excluding an alien
from this Colony is merely a right of exclusion,
and that if the alien proposes to tranship and
leave by another route, there is no power to prevent his doing so, unless special legislation is
introduced. There are two ordinances, under
which the Governor has power to direct the route by
which a person must leave the Colony, namely, the
Deportation Ordinance, No. 25 of 1917 (see Section 6)
and