(@)) ((=))
to cw. Orde
anod. J.
وم
My dear Cowell,
DIEV
Mong rong.
Government House,
April 11th, 1938.
13,60 END
I am frequently being approached demi-
officially from Canton with a request that I should pay
a call on the Provincial Authorities of Kwangtung. The latest
suggestion has been that I should go there unofficially.
Hitherto, I have taken the line that it will
be better to wait for the termination of the present
hostilities before paying such a call, my reason being that,
presumably the Japanese would look on such action as 'one
over the odds' as I have no official business in China and
there is nothing to be gained by such pin-pricking, as it might be regarded.
As regards the suggestion of an unofficial
call, I have told Blunt, the Consul-General at Canton, that I do not think it would be convenable, and that I anticipate
that the same view would be taken in the Colonial Office:
apart from any other reason I should have to go by railway,
in which case I should need a 'safe-conduct'; and that might
be refused by the Japanese, with consequent "loss of face" on
my part.
I shall be glad to know if these views are
concurred with generally. If, on the contrary, it is considered
that I should go to Canton and pay an official visit before long,
I am quite willing to do so; in that case I should probably go
by gun-boat.
Yours sincerely,
[-Art-horthern
+