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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :---
PERC.O.882/11
| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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example of the anti-British campaign conducted by these men is given Propaganda Sev in the enclosed translation" of a resolution by the tions of the rear" published in the Canton vernacular press of the 19th January. The calumny regarding the British loans to Chinese militarists had previously appeared in the Man Kwok Yat Po of the 20th December, 1920, which accused the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, the British American Tobacco Company and Sir Robert Ho Tung of jointly engineering a loan of £5,000,000 to Marshals Chang Tso-lin and Sun Ch'uan-fang. I enclose copy* of correspondence which has passed between me and His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton on this subject.
2. An even more illuminating exposition of the aims of southern extremists is given in the enclosed translation of an address delivered by General Cheung Kai-shek at Nan-chang. While General Cheung's imperialistic con- prime object may be the liberation of China from " trol," and first and foremost from that of Great Britain as being the most powerful, he has made it no secret that he hopes to assist all to a similar liberation (see the other so-called "oppressed nations
enclosure No. 7 to my secret despatch of the 14th January†). This is not mere bombast. I cannot too strongly urge upon His Majesty's Government the necessity for taking Moscow's programme of world- revolution seriously as a definite scheme for a Russo-Chinese com. munist coalition which, with its enormous reserve of proletariat man- hood, shall carry the gospel of Lenin in a new crusade to Indo-China, Malaya, India and finally the whole world.
3. Moscow has already made use of the sword with startling success in China, and, if the enclosed telegram* from Chinese sources is correct, may be about to use it more actively. I enclose also a press telegram- from Warsaw, dated the 27th January, and published in all the local English newspapers. But for the present the main weapon of Bolshevism in the Far East is propaganda among the Chinese masses and, more dangerous still, in the schools and colleges where the next generation of Chinese is being trained to think communistically. An illustration of the growth of Russian influence in Chinese educational institutions is afforded by the enclosed translation* of a report in the Man Kwok Yat Pu regarding staff for the Chung Shan University at Canton. Against this infection the representatives of Great Britain, admittedly the first target of Moscow's attack, are forbidden to attempt any defensive counter-propaganda. Even the magnificent opportunities for publicity afforded by our wireless achievements do not seem to be used to lay before the world the facts about China under the Third International.
4. Locally there is good reason to believe that the re-opening of work after the New Year will be the occasion of a vigorous effort by the celle in the Hong-Kong Canton labour unions to form communist
labour organizations with a view to the usual programme of unreason- able demands, strikes, riots and flaming denunciations of "capitalist oppression" leading up to another "general strike." I hope the ex- periences of the last general strike have created a body of opinion in local labour circles sufficiently convinced that the whips of capitalist
† C, 30001/27 [No. 20]: not printed.
• Not printed.
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exploitation are lenient beside the scorpions of union tyranny to defeat an attempt on the lines indicated. But I have thought it advisable after consulting my Executive Council to take certain additional powers under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance No. 5 of 1922. Copies of the new regulations are enclosed. I have also instructed the Captain Superintendent of Police to take steps to reconstitute, under Ordinance No. 27 of 1914, the Special Police Reserve. In addition I have arranged for route marches through the streets of the Colony by the Army, the Navy and the Volunteers in order to increase the confidence of the people in the power of this Government to maintain law and order. 3. A fresh instance of the labour tyranny in Canton and its use by the authorities for the expulsion of the foreigner is afforded by the closure of the American "John G. Kerr Hospital for the Insane that place. An account of this incident and the moves leading up to it is given in the enclosed extract* from one of the local English news- papeis. Its closure is a great inconvenience to this Colony which, as the clearing-house for South China, has from time to time consider- able numbers of Chinese lunatics on its hands. For some years past this Government has had a working arrangement with the asylum by hich the latter received from Hong Kong such Chinese lunatics as were not British subjects in return for subsidies and, more recently, for a per capita annual grant. These arrangements were in the best mterests of the patients themselves, who stood a better chance in Canton of being claimed by their own relatives. At the moment of writing it is not known what arrangements the Canton authorities have made for the care of the inmates of the asylum, but I have informed the doctor of the asylum that I am willing to continue the grant for one year and to allow it to be paid to the Department of Public Health, or whatever body has assumed control, provided he is satisfied that it is being properly administered for the benefit of the patients.
6. I also enclose:-
(a) A further account* of the Foochow incident. You will observe that this disgraceful manifesto was issued by the Administration Board of the Kuomintang, although we have been informed that the Kuomintang has issued the clearest orders for the protection of foreigners.
(b) An extract* from a memorandum on current events by the Commissioner of Customs at Canton, dated the 1st February, show- ing that the so-called Hong Kong and Canton strikers still exist as a formidable organization.
(r) A copy of a confidential letter on the Hankoy-situation, addressed by the Asiatic Petroleum Company to the British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai.
(d) A translation* from the Kwok Man San Man, Canton, of the 19th January, evidently containing the official Chinese version of the Hankow incident.
* Not printed.
I have, etc.,
C. CLEMENTI,
Governor, &e,
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