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They have refused to do so and have behaved with sound common sense. Mr. Hon Man-wai, their leader, is deserving of high praise and has shown unwavering courage in face of threats and attempts at intimidation. He has communicated his own spirit to the members of his Guild and has taught them the worthlessness of Bolshevik propaganda. He and his Guild have set a fine example, which all the other guilds have followed. The Chinese New Year is now well begun and the victory over this last mali- cious scheme of the Canton Strike Committee is complete. marks, I hope, the beginning of the end of the troubles in which for months past we have, through no fault of ours, been involved. If so, it is fit and proper that an engineering guild should have shown the way.
C.7488/26S.
No. 11.
It
The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Secret.
SIR,
K
(Received 5th April, 1926.)
Government House, Hongkong, 6th March. 1926.
With reference to my telegram of 27th February, 1926,* I have the honour to forward a translation of the document known as the Canton Strikers' Terms," consisting so far as this Colony is concerned of 15 items. This document was brought back to the Colony from Canton by a self-appointed delegation of minor Chinese business men, who on grounds utterly incomprehensible to anyone familiar with the recent history of party struggles in Canton had conceived the idea that the obstacles to the restora- tion of friendly relations between that city and Hongkong could rapidly be smoothed away by a few frank conversations in Canton on the subject of the business losses involved to both sides by a continuance of the impasse.
2. The delegation met in Canton with the reception which was to be anticipated. It was made clear to them that Canton and its Bolshevik advisers were not in the least concerned at the losses of the merchant and the capitalist, and in proof thereof there was handed to them this set of demands which interpreted by other pronouncements, could only mean that the price of peace was to be the grant of such licence to the Chinese proletariat of Hong- kong as would render good government of the Colony impossible.
3. The delegation on its return (about the 4th October, 1926). handed the demands to the two Chinese Members of Council, who in turn, as was their duty, tendered them to the acting Secretary
*('.4929/285; not printed.
..
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*
for Chinese Affairs (Mr. D. W. Tratman). The strike, despite the gravest intimidation and coercion by Canton, was then already a thing of the past. The Canton Government and Strike Com- mittee, on the other hand, had lost no opportunity of making it clear that Hongkong, the base of imperialism and the home of capitalistic oppression must in their own pregnant phrase "be fried dry." "Under such circumstances there was clearly nothing to be gained by consideration of these “terms.' There was, however, much to be lost. The Colony had just emerged successfully from the struggle for its food and labour-supply. The assassin and dynamiter had been frightened from their trade and public confidence restored. Even to receive, therefore, these truculent demands could not but have been interpreted by friends as well as foes as a sign of timidity, and Mr. Tratman refused officially to transmit the document to the Government. The demands had, however, been published in the Canton Press and several versions reproduced in the Hongkong papers. The list which forms enclosure 7 to my predecessor's confidential despatch of 2nd October, 1925,* is one of these versions.
4. Matters remained in this position until I assumed office, when the change in the governorship seemed to give an opportunity for considering the demands without prejudice. I, therefore, obtained from the Chinese Members of Council the original text and had the accompanying translation made in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. My subsequent efforts to obtain a rational discussion of our differences with Canton, and the refusal of the Canton Government to enter into negotiations with the longkong Government in order to obtain a settlement of the boycott, have been described in previous despatches.
5. With respect to these "terms," many of the more general ones appear to be stock formulæ set down without respect to facts. Thus the clauses calling for the 8-hour day, regulation of child labour, labour insurance and compulsory housing ignore the fact that none of these regulations exist in the strikers' home territory, whereas one at least, viz., the control of child labour has for some years been in force in Hongkong. Many large employers of labour here do provide free or very cheap housing for their labourers. Similarly the demand for liberty in education has no meaning in relation to Hongkong, where our Education Law provides only too little control in any but Government and grant-in-aid schools. The demand is probably part of the stock programme of the Overseas Kuomintang Party, the chief aim of which is to prevent the Chinese communities in foreign countries from becoming racially unconscious and so loyal members of the country of their adoption. The agitation of some years ago against educational control in Malaya was doubtless due to this cause. The same disregard of the fact is shown in the demand for the reopening of Unions, none of which were closed, though nearly all ceased to function with the departure of their officers.
*49489/25; not printed.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
THETIC.O. 882/11
لبين
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON