५०
Tiitos
24 JAN 1945
6
Nanking's Part
The Chinese authorities have seen some- what belatedly the danger to Anglo- Chinese friendship in the anti-British cam- paign which has disfigured some sections of the Chinese Press, and they have now. forbidden the publication of news about the Shameen outrages except through the official Government agency. Unfortu- nately they seem also determined to suppress information running counter to their own version of what happened. Already two Hongkong newspapers have been banned in China for giving evidence of official or semi-official complicity in the attack of the Canton mob on British persons and British property. One news- paper published a photograph showing a prominent and easily recognizable official of the Kuomintang leading a procession of rioters in uniform; the other reported that members of the Sanminchui Youth Corps, an organization patronized by some of the most prominent personalities in China, prevented the fire brigade from putting out the flames at the burning British Consulate-General,
The Chinese Government promptly ex- pressed its deep regret at the Shameen incidents, but the only official reply so far made to the British Note demanding com- pensation for damage and a public inquiry is a counterclaim for compensation for the Kowloon squatters and a protest against their eviction by the Hongkong authorities. This attitude can only strengthen suspicion that the agitation over Kowloon has been condoned, if not actively supported, in Thigh Chinese quarters. The magistrate of Pao On and his emissaries have been active | among the squatters; there is local evi- dence that those who were willing to obey the instructions of the Hongkong officials have been deterred by threats from seeking the alternative accommodation provided for them. The Nanking authorities could have restrained the intrigues of their local representatives among the squatters of Kowloon if they wanted to do so, just as they could have restrained the Press cam- paign which has inflamed popular feeling against the British and led to the disgrace- ful outbreak of organized violence at Shameen. If the Chinese Government; considers that its jurisdiction within the walled city of Kowloon should be revived after formal extinction for nearly half a century, the proper course is to open negotiations with Britain. If it fails to obtain what it considers to be satisfaction from this country, the machinery of the United Nations and of the International Court is available. The methods which have in fact been chosen are entirely un- worthy of a Government whose relations with Britain need never be anything but frank as well as friendly.
See HK. We no.
95 below
25%,
Me Wallace #1/535. MR Mayle H/534. Mh. Kartford (for filing)
-537
#