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ENCLOSURE 1 IN No. 12.
Translation of Letter from Mr. Wong Ching Wai to the two Chinese Members of Legislative Council.
DEAR SIR SHOUSON AND DR. KOTEWALL,
I have I wish you both every happiness for the New Year. seen Messrs. Kong Yi-sun and Li Sing-kue and have learnt your views from them. Should you gentlemen be visiting Macao we shall certainly send Mr. Foo Ping-sheung to meet you and give you a full exposition (of our views). I must end here.
23rd February.
Confidential,
SIR,
With regards,
WONG SHIU MING (i.e. WONG CHIng Wai).
ENCLOSURE 2 IN No. 12.
Hongkong, 5th March, 1926,
We have the honour to report, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, that on the invitation of Mr. Wong Ching-wei. and with the knowledge and consent of His Excel- lency, we left for Macao at 8 a.m. on the 2nd March for the pur- pose of meeting Mr. Foo Ping-sheung, the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs of Canton, and of having an informal conversation with him regarding the strike and boycott. We reached Macao at 11 a.m. but Mr. Foo did not arrive until about 7 p.m., his boat having encountered fog. Mr. Foo was accompanied by Mr. Wong Kwai-hi, a merchant of Hongkong, who recently assisted Mr. Kong E-suen and Mr. Li Sing-kue in their private efforts with Mr. Wong Ching-wei to bring about a rapprochement between Hongkong and Canton, but who did not participate in any of the conversations we had with Mr. Foo in Macao.
2. Mr. Foo Ping-sheung dined at our table in inc Macao Hotel the same evening; and after dinner (about 8.15 p.m.) we began conversation in Mr. Kotewall's room. Mr. Foo said that he was instructed by Mr. Wong Ching-wei to meet us in order to have a frank and full talk with us in the most friendly spirit; and we on our part informed him that we were there to meet him in the same spirit, pointing out at the same time that we held no mandate nor received instructions from anyone, though His Excellency the Governor knew, and was pleased to hear, that we were going to meet him. After these preliminaries, Mr. Foo at once began a rather long statement, the gist of which is as follows:-
3. Mr. Wong Ching-wei sent him to Macao in order to give us an explanation of the attitude of the Canton Government, to endeavour
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to remove all misunderstandings, and to find a way to end the present trouble. The Canton Government had been, and was, sincere in its desire to co-operate with the Hongkong Govern- ment to attain that object. It would be to the Canton Govern- ment's advantage to have the matter settled, as it was daily paying about $8,000 for feeding the strikers, and also the existence in Canton of an enormous number of unemployed men (something like 10,000) was very inconvenient and undesirable. Besides, even if Canton had ever desired to injure Hongkong, it had already achieved its object. Mr. Foo wished that he had met us in Macao about three months ago as suggested by us through his brother Mr. Foo Ping-kwan, and also by his uncle, Mr. Foo Sik. Canton Government at the time did not permit him to do so on the ground that any participation by him in preliminary discussions might prejudice his position in the final negotiation in which, by virtue of his office, he must necessarily take part. In the light of subsequent events which had created so many misunderstandings, he considered this a pity; for none of the officials of Canton could talk to any official of Hongkong with the same freedom and intimacy as some of the Canton officials could talk with the two Chinese members of the Legislative Council, they being personal friends and themselves Chinese. Neither could the Canton Government have communicated certain views and suggestions to the various Chinese intermediaries sent up to Canton by the Hongkong Government from time to time-not even Dr. To Ying-kwan, an old member of the Kuomintang. The Canton Government could only use these people as media of communica- tion, which were what they really were. He thought it a mistake for Hongkong to send up messengers to see different officials in Canton on the same errand, because such would cause, and had indeed caused at least once, some confusion. He expressed the opinion, in strict confidence, that it was also a pity that Mr. C. C. Wu had advised the Canton Government not to appoint officials of equal standing to negotiate with officials appointed by the Hong- kong Government, but to act as mediators only. He had a long argument with Mr. Wu over this matter, but without success. In his view such technical difficulty could have been overcome if the Hongkong Government had sent up the two Chinese members of Council to talk the matter over with the Canton Government in a friendly way, and to explore every avenue for a way out. The point was not sufficiently emphasised by Mr. Fletcher when he was in Canton, because apparently he had something else in mind. Mr. Fletcher said that Hongkong might send up some Chinese delegates, to be elected by the Chinese merchants, to meet the Strike Committee, instead of sending the four leading residents previously appointed by the Governor. Mr. C. C. Wu told Mr. Fletcher that the proposal was undesirable as there were to be no English delegates; but he added the remark: "This is Hong- kong's affair" or This is Hongkong's business,' which he intended to mean that as it was Hongkong's business, Hongkong should send up some English delegates. But the remark must have been interpreted by Mr. Fletcher to mean that as it was Hongkong's business, Hongkong could do anything it wished.
F
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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