139
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
ETERNIC.O. 882/11
سلئسسسياليسا
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE
BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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to Mr. Brenan the private letter, of which I enclose a copy.* Next day Mr. Brenan replied to Mr. Ch'ên in the letter, of which I also enclose a copy.† Mr. Brenan, when sending me copies of these letters in the attached semi-official letter, dated the 13th September, wrote: "The letters themselves should not be published." When these private notes had been exchanged, Mr. Brenan urgently requested Commander Fitzgerald not to keep British armed launchies lying at the British wharf, which is next to the strikers' examination wharf, and to suspend all abnormal British naval activity on the Canton river in return for an under- taking by the Chinese to police the harbour themselves, sup pressing irregular acts on the river. I attach copy of Commander Fitzgerald's telegram, dated 13th September, § to Rear-Admiral Stirling on this subject and of the Rear-Admiral's reply, also dated 13th September.
5. Upon these proceedings I venture to make the following observations :-
(a) Mr. Ch'ên was clearly playing for time, otherwise there was no reason why he should not at once have put forward 'his further practicable suggestions for the resumption of the boycott negotiations on other lines.'
(b) You will see from Mr. Brenan's semi-official letter to me, dated the 29th August, a copy of which was enclosed in my secret despatch of the 2nd September, that a short time ago the only new suggestion which Mr. Ch'ên felt able to make was a threat that his party intended to extend the boycott to the Yangtsze, unless we came to terms. I do not for a moment believe that he has anything more practicable to suggest now.
(c) It is very evident that Mr. Ch'en does not wish the Canton Strike Committee to know the details of his arrange- ments with Mr. Brenan. This is why he arranged that the preliminary correspondence should be private and that the letters should not be published. On the one hand, he wishes to save his own" face" and on the other hand he also wishes to save the "face" of the Canton Strike Committee. He is, in fact, running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. As an indication of the attitude of the Canton Government in this matter I enclose translation of a notification issued by them and published in the Kwok Man Say Man on the 9th September.**
(d) The boycott afloat is only one part of the anti-British manifestations at Canton. Even more dangerous is the boycott ashore. Nothing seems to have been said about the boycott ashore at the conference between Mr. Brenan and Mr. Ch'ên. But, ever since the British naval action at Canton and Swatow on the 4th September, the Strike Com- mittee has been endeavouring to tighten up the boycott
* Enclosure 2 † Enclosure 8.
| Enclosure 6. No. 31.
* Enclosure 4. § Enclosure 5.
** Enclosure 7.
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ashore; and I enclose a copy of the Canton Gazette of the 13th September-the day following Mr. Brenan's telegram to the Foreign Office--which contains the "Strike Com mittee's Warning to Shipping" and indicates the precautions which the Strike Committee is taking against the frustra- tion of the strike," meaning (of course) the boycott.
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(e) Commander Fitzgerald told me on the 15th September that the strike pickets are again using their examination shed at Canton now that our armed launches have been removed from the British wharf close by. I also learn that strike pickets at Canton now exact $1.80 a head from all Chinese passengers whom they can catch putting off in sampans to embark in the river steamers for Hongkong.
(f) On the 16th September Mr. Brenan telegraphed to me as follows:-"I have received information; which seems reliable, that the Merchants' Federation sent ten emissaries, including one Portuguese, to Hongkong by train on the I do not 14th September to start another general strike.' believe that another general strike could now be started in Hongkong and, of course, the necessary precautions have been taken. But the fact that information of this kind was spread about at Canton shows that the Canton Propaganda Bureau, a highly efficient organisation, is again at work and that the Strike Committee at Canton is under no sort of restraint in its anti-British activities.
(g) Any relaxation of our naval action at Canton before the land boycott is removed will be interpreted by the Canton Government to mean that we shrink from the consequences of such action. It has already been so interpreted by the vernacular press at Canton, as the enclosed translation of an article in the Man Kwok Fat Po of the 14th September will show.
(h) I do not believe that negotiations with the Canton Government, unless backed by a show of force, will ever end the boycott.
6. With these considerations in our minds the conference, which 1 convened at Government House on the morning of the 13th September, proceeded to consider what reply should be made to your telegram of the 9th September. Besides myself, there were present Major-General C. C. Luard, Rear-Admiral A. J. B. We Stirling, Messrs. Southorn, Kemp, Halifax and Bernard. agreed that the new developments in the situation, apart from the arrangements just made during the week-end between Mr. Brenan and Mr. Ch'ên and commented upon above, were the following:-
(a) British naval action on the 4th September at Canton and at Swatow had cleared the strike pickets completely off the waterways without the necessity for firing a single shot. This action had produced an excellent effect both in Hong- kong and Canton,
• Not printed. † C.16913 20; not printed
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