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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.882/11
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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(a) The British delegation will primarily represent the Hongkong Government, but His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton has been added to it, in order that the negotiations may include the anti-British boycott throughout the Kuang- tung Province, together with any other cognate questions which the Canton Government may wish to raise.
(b) The Hongkong delegates will be given plenipotentiary powers as regards matters relating to Hongkong, and Mr. Brenan, in addition to his ordinary authority as Consul- General, has been given by His Majesty's Government reasonable discretion in consultation with the Hongkong dele- gates to take the steps necessary to effect a settlement. Any settlement reached by the delegates will be subject to the usual ratification by their respective Governments.
Mr. Brenan added the suggestion that the proposed reply should end by expressing the hope that the above information would clear up the two points arising out of Mr. Ch'èn's letter and by assuring the Canton Government of the earnest desire of His Majesty's Government and of the Hongkong Government to reach a solution mutually satisfactory.
5. I telegraphed to Mr. Brenan on the 24th June agreeing to the terms of his proposed reply, and requesting him to write to Mr. Eugene Ch'ên accordingly, saying that he did so at my I now await a further request, and with my full concurrence. communication from Mr. Brenan on the subject.
SIR,
I have, &c.,
C. CLEMENTI,
ENCLOSURE 1 IN NO. 22.
Governor, &c.
H.B.M. Consulate-General, Canton, 16th June, 1926.
I have been requested by the Governor of Hongkong to inform you, in reply to the letter addressed by you to His Excellency on 5th June, that the strike in Hongkong has long been a thing of the past, but that he has appointed the Hon. Mr. J. H. Kemp and the Hon. Mr. E. R. Halifax as representatives of the Hongkong Government to negotiate with the official representatives of the Canton Government a settlement of the anti-British boycott.
I enclose a copy of the Governor's letter for your information, and, with reference to the last paragraph thereof, I have the
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honour to state that at the request of the Hongkong Government I have been authorized by His Majesty's Minister at Peking to be a member of the delegation.
Mr. Ch'ên Yu-jen,
I have, &c.,
J. F. BRENAN,
Acting Consul-General.
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Canton.
ENCLOSURE 2 IN No. 22.
FROM MR. EUGENE CH'EN, CANTON'S ACTING MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TO H.B.M. CONSUL-GENERAL, MR. BRENAN.
SIR,
21st June, 1926.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch dated 16th June, in reply to my note addressed to the Governor of Hongkong, in which I expressed the readiness of my Govern- ment to enter into negotiation with the Government of Hongkong regarding the Canton-Hongkong strike.
While it is obvious that the strike still continues to be such a political and economic reality as to make any denial of its existence appear at once evasive and futile; my Government-averse from any view of your reply that may lead to a fresh impasse, and desirous that the issues involved shall be frankly and resolutely faced is prepared to authorize its delegates also to negotiate with the official representatives of the Hongkong Government the British or any other duly appointed representative of Government regarding the manner and means of settling the anti-British boycott, which has been sustained by the Chinese people in Kuang-tung for precisely a year.
to be undertaken If the forthcoming negotiations are
your seriously it is essential to clear up two points arising out of reply. When handing the reply to me, you explained that a rule of the British Imperial Service debarred the Governor and Government of Hongkong from direct communication with my As this rule Government or any other foreign Government. seems to apply, a fortiori, to representatives appointed by the Governor and/or Government of Hongkong, I am to ask you to inform me whether the representatives named in your despatch will negotiate as members of purely Hongkong delegation, or as members of a British Imperial delegation.
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