189
TPEL
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
minmini C.O. s82/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
|ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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passengers. I cannot say at present what further measures will be taken by both sides; but I ani confirmed in the opinion expressed in the last sentence of my confidential despatch of the 16th March that British shipping must fight the Seamen's Union or disappear from Chinese coastal and inland waters.
4. A fresh attack on the peace and good order of the Colony has just developed from an organisation known as the General Labour Union of Hong Kong. This organisation has been in existence for some years and purports to be a kind of standing congress of the representa tives of genuine Trade Unions. In real fact it is merely a politica! tool of Chinese extremist agitators and, therefore, in these times, of Bolshevis (see my predecessor's despatch No. 393 of the 18th Octob 1925).† The exposure of Unionism in the 1925 crisis discredited the congress; but in the last few days emissaries have been sent from Canton to revive it obviously with the intention of preparing the ground in Hong Kong for an outbreak of chaos similar to that just staged at Shanghai by the General Labour Union there, involving inter alia the hiring of gunmen at $20 a murder to assassinate non-strikers. In view of the grave emergency which now exists, I have decided that the resuscitation of the General Labour Union in Hong Kong cannot be tolerated and I have accordingly, on the unanimous advice of my Executive Council at yesterday's meeting, proscribed it under the Emergency Regulations, a copy of which is enclosed. This action has also the unanimous approval of the District Watchmen Committee and was indeed originally recommended by that Committee when it met me at Government House on the 30th March.
5. The Canton Government is stated to have declared a settlement of the dispute between merchants and their employees. A copy of the terms as reported in the Press is enclosed. They are sufficiently startling when it is remembered that Canton is temporarily under a "moderate" régime. But it is nevertheless alleged that the Provincial Commissioner of Labour, Mr. Ch'an Fu-muk--a noted extremist-has resigned his office as a protest against the leniency shown to the merchants.
6. I enclose a précis translation from the Kwok Man San Man, Canton, of the 7th March, containing an account of the proceedings of a conference convened for the purpose of protesting against the despatch of British troops to China. I would invite your attention to the reiteration of the phrase "propertyless classes" and to the openly Bolshevik tone of the whole proceedings in spite of the alleged moderate views of the party temporarily in control of Canton. I have brought to the notice of the Viceroy of India the telegram addressed to the Swarajists,
7. I also attach copies of reports by the Assistant Superintendent of Police, New Territories, dated the 20th and 27th March, respec- tively, and invite you to remark the similarity in tone of the speeches and pamphlets enclosed therein to the messages in the last preceding enclosure. The phrase "local rowdies" is the traditional (and literal) translation of a term which describes the leading men of the country- side from the point of view of the wastrel.
⚫ C. 30018/27 [No. 16]: not printed.
+51530/25: not printed. Not print i
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8. In fine everything points only too clearly to the conclusion already drawn in paragraph 3 of my secret despatch of the 25th February,* that the Nationalist leaders, having assiduously fanned Comrade Borodin's communist spark, are now powerless before the conflagration.
I have, &c.
ENCLOSURE IN No. 8.
C. CLEMENTI,
Governor, &c.
Regulations made by the Governor in Council under section 2 of
the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, 1922, Ordinance No. 5 of 1922, on the 27th day of January, 1927.
Published in the Government Gazette of the 28th January, 1927.
Government Notification No. 39.
PREVENTION OF DISORDER.
1. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council in these regulations, or by subsequent order, to proscribe within the Colony, for the pur- poses of these regulations, any organisation whatsoever, whether such organisation be within or without the Colony, which in the opinion of the Governor in Council is an organisation which has among its aims, or is being used for, the promotion of a general strike, or of disorder of any kind, or of the spread of sedition, within the Colony. 2. No person shall do any act in furtherance of the objects of any such proscribed organisation.
3. No person shall, without lawful authority or excuse have in his possession any badge, ticket, or document, or any other thing what- soever, which purports to have been, or which appears to have been, issued by any such proscribed organisation, whether before or after such proscription, or which purports to be, or which appears to be, or which appears to be intended as, evidence of membership of, or any authority from, or any association with, any such proscribed organisation.
4. No person shall do any act in furtherance of the promotion of a general strike, or of disorder of any kind, or of the spread of sedition, within the Colony.
5. No person shall utter any newspaper, book or other document containing any matter which is seditious matter as defined in the Seditious Publications Ordinance, 1914, and no person shall say any thing which if reduced to writing would be seditious matter as so defined,
D. W. TRATMAN,
COUNCIL CHAMBER,
27th January, 1927.
• No. 5.
Clerk of Councils.
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