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C.O.882/11
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC
RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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I paid a formal call on Mr. Sung Tsz-man at his house, and I arranged for my card to be left at the office of General Tam Yin-hoi, the present Acting Chairman of the Council. I decided not to try and see Mr. Sun Fo privately, as it might have created a bad impression. Unfortunately he was present at the tiffin. I noticed that Mr. C. C. Wu sent Mr. Luk King-fo with us when we called on Mr. Sung Tsz-man. No one on Shameen seems to know where Mr. Wong Tsing-wai is, and everyone on Shameen said that it was impossible to get to see General Cheung Kai-shek. The informal conversations have thus ended in a temporary deadlock. I think that this result was inevitable from the begin- ning. They have, however, I think, gone a long way towards one very desirable result, i.e., to impress on the Canton Govern- ment and on the boycott leaders, the determination of Hongkong not to be blackmailed. It may be that. when this fact has been fully realised and appreciated, either the present Government or some future Government will see that the only sound policy is to suppress the Strike Committee and pickets and put an end to the boycott. Failing that, I think that we must only wait until the boycott collapses of its own inherent weakness.
J. H. KEMP.
10th April, 1926.
ENCLOSURE 2 IN NO. 17. Attorney-General's Chambers, Courts of Justice,
Hongkong, 11th April, 1926.
DEAR MR. Wu,
I feel that I must write to thank you for your hospitality and a great courtesy during my recent visit to Canton. It was pleasure to renew our old acquaintance, and I think that we may congratulate ourselves on the frank and friendly character of our conversations. I hope that at no very distant date we shall hear that your Government is about to send someone to renew those conversations in Hongkong.
Yours sincerely,
C.10268/26S.
No. 18.
J. H. KEMP.
The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the
Secret.
SIR,
Colonies.
(Received 17th May, 1926.)
Government House, Hongkong, 15th April, 1926.
In your telegram to me, dated the 14th April,* you point out that the effect of Mr. J. H. Kemp's conversations with Mr. C. C.
* C.7990/28S; not printed.
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Wu at Canton has been to make it quite clear that the Hongkong Government would neither itself make payment, nor countenance any payment by others, of strike pay or of compensation for non- reinstatement of strikers, and that the door to settlement of the anti-British boycott on these lines has been finally barred. You inquire why this was done and you ask for further information as to the tactics which I now consider likely to yield the best results. In order to answer these questions, I must first recapitulate briefly the course of events.
2. When an endeavour to open negotiations between Hong- kong and Canton for a settlement of the anti-British boycott first began in December, 1925, all official opinion in Hongkong was (as it still is) emphatically against any payment of blackmail to the Canton Strike. Committee for the following reasons, namely, that
(a) it will not eliminate Russian Bolshevik influence from Kuang-tung and that the Kussians, until they are dislodged from Kuang-tung, will be a constant menace to Hongkong and may prejudice the permanency of any settlement now made.
(b) it will be a positive encouragement to organised labour to proclaim another anti-British boycott, whenever labour funds are again needed, and it might provide ways and means for maintaining the nucleus of a Labour Committee at Canton ready and willing to seize any pretext for raising
easy money from Hongkong:
"
(c) it will secure no permanent advantage to Hongkong, if the present Canton Soviet is overthrown, as it may be any day, by its numerous enemies within and without Kuang- tung:
(d) it might simply be diverted to the war-chest of the pre- sent Canton Government for the purpose of the northern campaign in which some of the generals of the Kuang-tung army wish to engage, for the purpose of extending Coni- munism in China:
(e) it would humiliate Hongkong and would definitely and for a long time lower British prestige in China.
These views were also held at that time by many British mer- chants in Hongkong.
3. But in December last the Chinese merchants of Hongkong were very apprehensive of a financial crash at Chinese New Year (13th February). There had been an unfortunate delay in making issues from the Trade Loan and the beneficial effect of these issues did not make itself felt until the latter half of January. More- over, a settlement by payment of blackmail, though repugnant to British habits of thought, would, not have been considered unusual by the Chinese. When, therefore, as the result of Mr. Fletcher's mission to Canton, there appeared to be a chance of ending the
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