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256
be made to the proposal of the Canton Government for an inter- national enquiry into the Shakee-Shameen affair of the 23rd Junc. 1925, was fully discussed in Executive Council on the 26th August and again to-day.
2. In the interval, Mr. J. F. Brenan, His Majesty's Consul- General at Canton, had, on the 28th August, an informal discus- sion with Mr. Eugene Ch'ên, the acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Canton Government, and I attach a copy of a semi- official letter from him to me, dated the 29th August, in which Three points emerge clearly, he describes this discussion.
namely:
(a) That Mr. Ch'ên does not regard the proposed inter- national enquiry as a serious proposition;
(b) that our offer of an industrial loan as a solution of the difficulty is not acceptable; and
(c) that the Canton Government has not at present any in- tention of ending the anti-British boycott, or of restraining the so-called "strike pickets," from the acts of piracy and brigandage by means of which they terrorize the Cantonesc merchants.
This matter is made even plainer in the enclosed translation of a speech by Mr. Sun Fo, now Mayor of Canton, and member of the Canton Soviet,-published on the 27th August in the Man Kwok Yat Po, which is the official newspaper of the Kuo-min-tang at Canton In this speech, Mr. Sun Fo appears to identify the Canton Government completely with the Canton Strike Commit- tee, and 1 enclose a copy of a letter which I have addressed to His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton on the subject.
3. Both Mr. Eugene Ch'ên and Mr. Sun Fo allude to a speech which I made on the 17th August upon the occasion of the open- ing of new premises by Messrs. Lane, Crawford and Company in Hongkong. I enclose the newspaper report† of that function and of the speech which I then made. This speech was intended as a deliberate, but abridged, re-statement of what I said in Legisla- tive Council on the 4th February, 1926. (Please see my despatch of the 10th February§.) It was also made in order to give publicity to the view, already conveyed to Mr. Ch'ên by Mr. Brenan in an official despatch, that the so-called strike pickets are in effect a body of organized pirates and bandits. (Please see my despatch of the 5th August to Mr. Brenans and his despatch of the 11th August to Mr. Ch'ên, copies of both of which I attach.) And it was further intended to pave the way for the more drastic action against strike pickets which has now been approved by His (Please see Foreign Office telegram Majesty's Government.
No. 19 of the 1st September (31st August]** to his Majesty's Consul-General at Canton.)
• Enclosure 1.
Enclosure 5.
↑ Not reprinted.
Enclosure 8.
Enclosure 8. § No. 7. **C 18728;28; not printed.
257
4. The latest news which I have concerning the civil war in southern China is given in my secret despatch of the 30th August.* The military situation is still obscure, and it seems useless to wait any longer in the hope of a speedy decision by force of arms.
5. Accordingly the Executive Council unanimously agrees that a reply to Canton concerning the international enquiry proposal should now be given on the lines of your telegram of the 4th August, with the added conditions proposed in my telegram of the 7th August‡, and that in our reply we should ask for an answer from the Canton Government as soon as possible. It may be, however, that the Canton Government will send no answer, and in that case we recommend that, if no answer is given to our reply within fourteen days of its receipt, a further letter should he addressed by His Majesty's Consul-General to the Canton Government requesting an answer within seven days, failing which, both our offer of an industrial loan, and our reply to the We consider enquiry proposal will be regarded as cancelled. action on these lines to be necessary, in order to guard against the possibilities indicated in the 4th and 5th paragraphs of my secret despatch of the 23rd August,§ and in order to ensure that the whole matter may be pressed to a definite conclusion.
6. This dispatch confirms and amplifies my telegram of to-day's date, in which Mr. Brenan has concurred.
I have, &c.,
C. CLEMENTI,
Governor, &c.
ENCLOSURE 1 IN No. 31.
H.B.M. Consulate-General, Canton.
DEAR SIR CECIL,
29th August, 1926.
When I was in Hongkong the other day, I mentioned to you that in the course of one of my conversations with Eugene Ch❜ên on the subject of the Canton-Kowloon Railway Agreement, he asked, quite spontaneously, what I thought of re-opening the Boycott Conference on a broader basis and bringing within the negotiations not only the boycott issue, but also other outstand- ing questions such as the railway, and thus endeavouring to reach a more general settlement of all our difficulties at the same time. I replied that if he would drop the indemnity or strike compensa- tion demand and would formulate a proposal on the lines he had
* C 18770,26; not printed.
† C 14832/26; not printed.
§ C 17970/26; not printed.
† C 15807/26; not printed. 18913/26; not printed.
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