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Kwan and others, made by Mr. Abbott, Assistant Crown
Solicitor, to the Postmaster General.
2.
The revelations disclosed in the course of
this episode fall into three categories.
In the first
place there is the use of an illicit wireless telegraphy
As Messrs. Cable and wireless Limited
transmitter.
are capable of dispatching all the telegraphic messages
which the Hong Kong agencies of the Chinese Goverment
may wish sent to Chungking, it is to be presumed that
the principal objects to be served were economy (at
the expense of the Hong Kong Government and the Company)
and convenience. As you are aware, since the beginning
of the current Sino-Japanese hostilities but prior to
the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Germany,
this Government has on various occasions been obliged
to take measures to prevent the use of such transmitting
sets by agents of the Chinese Government, partly in
observance of its contract with Messrs. Cable and
Wireless Limited and partly in order to preserve its
neutrality. On six occasions illicit installations
have been detected, four cases being brought to
court, and the magistrate in his judgment upon the last case of the kind prior to the Nathan Road incident stated publicly that severe penalties would
be inflicted should another such offence be
discovered. That these breaches of the law were
not treated more drastically during this period was principally due, I think, to an underlying sympathy with the Republic of China in its difficult
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