PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TREENICO. 882/11
السيسيا
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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ENCLOSURE 3 IN NO. 19.
Dr. Lam Tsz-fung [Chinese characters] called: Mr. Kemp joined the discussion.
Dr. Lam produced the Aide-Mémoire herewith, and stated he had no other letter of any kind from anyone in Canton except an introductory letter from Mr. C. C. Wu to Mr. Kemp: his instruc- tions were verbal from the Canton Government generally.
His instructions were to find out :-
(1) whether the Hongkong Government's communiqué was meant to close the door to further negotiation?
(2) and to tell Hongkong the real position of the Canton Government:
(3) and to ask for suggestions towards facilitating a solu- tica
As to (2) he said the Canton Government is sincere in its desire to continue negotiations for ending the boycott and resuming normal relations.
As to (1) I answered that the communiqué was not meant to close the door. Some information to the public was called for. as it was common property that Mr. Kemp had seen Mr. Wu in Canton; and it was considered that at their interviews the point of payment (as in the communiqué) was finally disposed of, still leaving the door open for the resumption of negotiations in any other direction.
With regard to the last paragraph of the aide-mémoire it was stated that the Hongkong Government holds to the position that it can only negotiate with the Canton Government as a principal. With regard to the resumption of informal negotiations it was pointed out by the Colonial Secretary that while they are not necessarily confined to negotiators selected from the formally appointed delegates, the appointment by either Government of others with less authority to carry on informal negotiations is clearly less convenient.
28th April, 1926.
C 13868/26.
No. 20.
The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Secret.
SIR,
(Received 13th July, 1926.)
Government House, Hongkong, 8th June, 1926.
On the 22nd March, Mr. Wong Tseng-wai, then Chairman of
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the Canton Council of Government, wrote to me that, if I would appoint Messrs. Halifax, Kemp and Tratman to go to Canton, the Canton Government would appoint Messrs. Sung Tsz-man, C. C. Wu and Ch'an Kung-pok to negotiate with them a settle- ment of the boycott. (Enclosure No. 1 in my secret despatch of the 24th March)*. It now appears that, at the time when he wrote this letter, Mr. Wong Tseng-wai was already a spent political force owing to the coup effected in Canton by General Cheung Kai-shek on the 19th March. Mr. Wong did not again, after that day, take his seat in the Canton Council of Government, alleging ill-health as a pretext. He left Canton on the 9th May, and he has since then been reported to be on his way to Paris.
2. The political excitement caused in Canton by General Cheung's coup delayed negotiations concerning the boycott; but on the 2nd April Mr. Fu Peng-sheung, then Commissioner for Foreign Affairs at Canton, confirmed by official despatch the arrangements for formal negotiations initiated by Mr. Wong Tseng-wai, and proposed that informal conversations should precede the official conference. (Please see my secret despatch of the 6th April). † Accordingly, Mr. J. H. Kemp on the 7th April visited Canton, where he had two interviews with Mr. C. C. Wu, returning to Hongkong on the 10th April. The result of these interviews was far from satisfactory, owing to the attitude taken up by Mr. Wu, who perhaps already felt his political posi- tion at Canton to be insecure. (Please see my secret despatch of the 11th April. There was then impending the meeting of the Kuo-min-tang, which opened at Canton on the 15th May, and at which it was clear that a struggle for political power between the Communists and anti-Communists would shortly take place. Anyway no tangible result ensued either from the conversation between Mr. Kemp and Mr. C. C. Wu or from the visit which Dr. Lam Tsz-fung, Director of the Central Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance at Canton," paid to Messrs. Kemp, Tratman and Halifax in Hongkong on the 27th and 28th April. Dr. Lam's visit seems merely to have been designed to enable the Cantonese authorities to say that they had not definitely refused to continue the informal conversations initiated earlier in the month. (Please see my secret despatch of the 3rd May). §
**
3. Meanwhile certain important changes took place in Canton. Mr. J. F. Brenan took the place of Sir James Jamieson as His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton on the 14th April. Mr. Sun Fo left Canton on the 15th April on a political visit to Shanghai; and he returned to Canton on the 29th April. There also arrived in Canton on the 29th April from Vladivostock, Mr. Wu Hon-man (formerly Governor of the Kuang-tung Province). Mr. Jacob Borodin (Bolshevik adviser to the Canton Soviet, who had been absent from Canton since February last) and Mr. Eugene Ch'ên. ·
* No. C 9220:26 S. #No. 17.
↑ No. 16.
§ C 11597/20; not printe..
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