. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
ག ་།་། །
Reference :-
C.O.882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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fifty rounds were fired at her. Mr. Brenan at once went into Canton City to see General Li Chai-sum, the head of the new Cantonese régime. He had to wait two hours before General Li, who was out. returned and gave him an interview. At this interview Mr. Brenan demanded an apology from the Officer Commanding the Whampoa forts, punishment of the offenders and compensation for the damage done to the ship. General Li professed entire ignorance of the affair and asked for three days in which to make inquiry and give an answer. Mr. Brenan agreed to this and then returned to Shameen. 2. On the afternoon of the same day Mr. Southorn left Canton in s.s. Lungshan on her return voyage to Hong Kong. Before the ship eft, Mr. Brenan came on board and informed Mr. Southorn that, f at the end of three days no satisfactory reply was received he proposed to renew his demands with a short time-limit and to ask the British Naval Authorities to take action, if necessary, at the end of the time-limit. He further suggested that the Naval Authori-
ties at Hong Kong should make their dispositions in case it became necessary to take punitive action, and he urged that a British cruiser should be sent at once to lie off the scene of the outrage, and that British aircraft should fly over the Whampoa forts; but he did not wish any actual reprisals to be taken without prior reference to hini, in view of his negotiations with General Li Chai-sum.
3. H.M.S. Cicula convoyed the s.s. Lungshan past Dane Island on the afternoon of the 18th May, with instructions to return fire if the river steamer was again fired at; and the master of s.8. Lungshan reported that, on approaching the scene of the morning's outrage, he observed Chinese soldiers by the river-bank apparently ready to open fire, but that on seeing H.M.S. Cicala following behind him these men slunk away and that there was no firing.
4. The foregoing circumstances were reported to ine by Mr. Southorn on the 17th May. On that day I also received from the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company the letter* of which I attach a copy, and from Mr. Brenan a copy of his telegram to the Foreign Office, No. 34 of the 16th May. I thereupon at one" wrote to Mr. Brenan the letter* of which I attach a copy, stating that I desired to support to the utmost his prompt demand for an apology, for punishment of the offenders and for the immediate cessation of such lawless and hostile actions.
5. On the evening of the same day I received a copy of Mr. Brenan's telegram to the Foreign Office, No. 35 of the 17th May, in which he said that the following demands were being communicated by him in writing to the Canton Ministry for Foreign Affairs, viz. :—
(a) Adequate punishment of the officer in charge of the guilty troops and any other persons implicated in the outrage: names and punishments to be notified to the Consul-General :
(4) Compensation for damage (which is slight):
(c) The Commander of the Whampoa forts to call in person and
in uniform on a British man-of-war to apologize.
Not printed.
+ Enclosure in C, 30025/27 [No. 79]: not printed. Enclosure in C. 30025/27 (No. 82]: not printed.
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Mr. Brenan suggested that he should be authorized to give a time- limit of five days for compliance, failing which the retaliatory measures contemplated in Admiralty telegram No. 912 of the 11th May* should be taken. He added that it would expedite a settle- ment if the Naval Authorities could immediately station a cruiser at Whampoa or take some other dispositions of a menacing nature in readiness for action.
6. It so happened that, in connection with other matters, a meeting of the Hong Kong General Defence Committee had been arranged to take place at 9.30 a.m. on the 18th May. This meeting, over which I presided, was attended General C. C. Luard, Rear-Admiral W. H. D. Boyle, Commodore J. L. Pearson, Mr. W. T. Southorn, Mr. E. D. C. Wolfe (Captain Superintendent of Police), and Major F S. Roberts (General Staff Officer). Such a meeting appeared to me to be very well qualified to consider the action. appropriate to be taken in connection with the Lungshan affair and 1, therefore, brought the matter before the Committee for its consideration.
7. We were unanimously of opinion that unprovoked firing at British ships, which has unhappily been very frequent on the Yangtsze, but which has not hitherto taken place on the West River, must be drastically stopped at the outset or it might soon become chronic. The s.s. Lungshan is a well-known British river steamer, which has passed the spot where she was attacked several times a week for years past. There could have been no doubt as to her identity. She is usually crowded with deck passengers, chiefly Chinese and it was a mere chance that in the outrageous attack on the 16th May no one in the ship was killed or wounded. Many thousands of passengers pass between Hong Kong and Canton daily in British river steamers. The prosperity of the Colony of Hong Kong depends largely on the security of travel in the West River delta and respect for, the British flag. We were, therefore, heartily in accord with Mr. Brenan's action in demanding apology, punishment and reparation for the attack on 8.8. Lungshan.
8. We did not know why or on whose orders (if indeed on any orders at all) Chinese soldiers near the Whampoa forts had fired at 8.8. Lungshan: but we considered that, if the reasonable and moderate demands made by Mr. Brenan were not complied with, the Canton Government would be identified with this wanton anti-British outrage, and that, therefore, the sanctions must be such as would effectively prevent any further outrage of the kind, permanently keep open the waterways between Hong Kong and Shameen and give our shipping full security. The only sanctions of this nature were in our opinion the capture of the Bogue forts and of the Dane Island defences, and for such an operation the naval and military forces now in Hong Kong are adequate.
9. The whole object of His Majesty's Government being restoration of security, freedom and equal opportunity of British trade in China, we considered that a fourth demand should be added to the three already made by Mr. Brenan, namely, a guarantee by the Canton flovernment against further anti-British outrages and the suppression of all anti-British manifestations.
• Enclosure in C. 30045/27 (No. 20]: not printed.
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