106
200
it is my duty as Foreign Minister to take action accordingly, and I take this opportunity of explaining that in future all foreign affairs hitherto handled by the Kuang-tung Bureau of Foreign Affairs will, without exception, be dealt with by the Foreign Office, and that action will be taken in the name of the Foreign Office.
I have written separate letters in this sense to the other consuls, and request you to take note accordingly.
14765/26.
201
No. 22.
The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
(Received 26th July, 1926.)
Government House, Hongkong, 25th June, 1926.
Compliments, &c.,
CH'EN YU-JEN.
Secret.
(Eugene Ch'ên).
SIR,
SIR,
ENCLOSURE 2 IN No. 21.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch forwarding a letter addressed to me on 5th June by Mr. Ch'ên Yu-jen, the acting Minister for Foreign Affairs at Canton. In reply to the latter, I shall be obliged if you will inform Mr. Ch'ên that the strike in Hongkong has long been a thing of the past, but that I have appointed the Hon. Mr. J. H. Kemp and the Hon. Mr. E. R. Halifax as representatives of the Hongkong Govern- ment to negotiate with the official representatives of the Canton Government a settlement of the anti-British boycott, and that I should be glad to learn when the negotiations can be commenced. I have only appointed two delegates as His Majesty's Minister at Peking has authorised you to bé a member of the delegation.
SIR,
I have, &c.,
ENCLOSURE 3 IN NO. 21.
With reference to my letter of even date, I trust that you your- self may be able to attend and participate in the forthcoming conference of Messrs. Kemp and Halifax with Messrs. Ch'ên Yu- jen. Sung Tsz-man and Chan Kung-pok. If so, I have the honour to request you to inform Mr. Ch’ên Yu-jen that you do so at the request and with the full concurrence of the Hongkong
Government.
I have, &c.,
at
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt, on the 14th June, of the instructions of His Majesty's Government,* conveyed tele- graphically through His Majesty's Minister Peking, authorizing the despatch by me of the letters which formed the second and third enclosures in my secret despatch of the 11th June. I accordingly signed and sent these letters to His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton on the 14th June.
2. Mr. Brenan, on the 16th June, handed to Mr. Eugene Ch'ên a copy of the letter which formed the second enclosure in my despatch to you, together with a covering letter of his own, stat- ing that at the request of the Hongkong Government he had been authorized by His Majesty's Minister at Peking to be a member of the delegation. I attach a copy of Mr. Brenan's letter.‡
3. Mr. Eugene Ch'ên replied in a letter§ dated the 21st June, of which I attach a copy. This letter was also published by Mr. Ch'en as a communiqué to the Press, and a copy of it appeared in The letter the South China Morning Post on the 25th June. reached my hands on the 24th June under the cover of a despatch from Mr. Brenan, dated the 22nd June, asking for advice from me as to the form which the reply should take, and you will observe that Mr. Ch'ên asks two questions, namely:
(a) whether Messrs. Kemp and Halifax will negotiate as members of a purely Hongkong delegation, or as members of a British Imperial delegation": and
(b) whether the British delegates will have plenipoten- tiary powers, equal to those of the Cantonese delegates, with the reservation that any settlement reached by the delegates should be subject to the usual ratification by their respective Governments.
4. Mr. Brenan subsequently sent me a telegram, which was dated the 23rd June, and which reached me on the following day a few hours after his despatch of the 22nd June, suggesting that the replies to the questions asked by Mr. Eugene Ch'ên should be as follows:-
* C 19288 26; not printed. † No. 2!. * Enclosure 1. § Enclosure 2.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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