CO885-11 — Page 116

221

116

are wont to advise as a magical operation with crowds.

看看

Oriental

While there can be no doubt that 23rd June is the direct and immediate cause of the anti-British boycott (and of the intensifica- tion and extension of the Hongkong strike), it is certain that the practical blockade which the Government of Hongkong instituted against Canton and the rest of the province was a powerful pre- disposing and, later, continuing factor in the maintenance and enforcement of the anti-British boycott. The Hongkong Governor in Council, it will be recalled, prohibited the exporta- tion of "rice, flour, tinned or preserved food-stuffs, gold and silver coin in amounts exceeding five dollars." This prohibition became known in Canton within a few hours of the tragedy of 23rd June, and whatever may have been its actual purpose and aim, it was then interpreted and continued so to be interpreted as a financial and economic blockade of Canton and the rest of the province which had hitherto depended on Hongkong for supplies of rice and other food-stuffs.

In a sense, it may be said that this Hongkong severance of cconomic relations with Canton suggested the precise form in which patriotic retaliation for 23rd June should express itself. And if the anti-British boycott did not soon follow the course of other apparently similar manifestations of popular feeling in the past, one of the main reasons was that the movement came in- mediately to be envisaged as a means of effective defence against what Chinese Nationalists were led to understand as a British attempt, based on Hongkong, to starve and crush Canton as the centre of Nationalist doctrine and activity.

But there is a more concrete reason why the anti-British boy- cott has been so long sustained. It is on record that my Govern- ment made repeated attempts to have the question of 23rd June settled. And in reply to one of these attempts, the then British Consul-General stated that his Government could not entertain the demands formulated for a settlement of the question. These demands were conceived and formulated in the unusual circum- stances immediately following the shooting of 23rd June, and they included terms which my Government, actuated by a sincere desire to arrive at a satisfactory settlement, is prepared to review in order that nothing incompatible with the real dignity and interest of Great Britain as a trading Power in China shall con tinue to obstruct the path of settlement.

Before communicating these new terms of settlement, we wish to have the views of the British delegation on this presentation and definition of the anti-British boycott issue.

C16819/26.

No. 28.

The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the

Colonies.

Secret.

SIR,

(Received 1st September, 1926.)

Government House, Hongkong, 23rd July, 1926.

With reference to my secret despatch of the 19th July*, I have the honour to forward for your information the following fur- ther documents concerning the Boycott Conference at Canton :- (a) Communiqué† issued jointly by the Chinese and British delegates on the 16th July.

(b) Copy of telegram from the Consul-General, Canton, to His Britannic Majesty's Minister, Peking, dated 19th July. (c) Notes§ relating to the meeting of the 19th July, with a statement by the British delegation attached.

(d) Telegram from Mr. Kemp, dated 22nd July.

I have, &c.,

.

C. CLEMENTI,

Governor, &c.

ENCLOSURE I IN No. 28.

COMMUNIQUE No. 2.

16th July, 1926.

The following communiqué is jointly issued by the British and Chinese delegations who are negotiating a settlement of Chinese-British disputes in the Liang-Kuang:—

The Conference resumed its sittings to-day at 10.30 a.m., when the Chinese delegation stated their views on the origin of the anti-British boycott. They refrained from formulating any conditions of settlement pending a reply to their statement. The Conference thep adjourned till Monday, 19th July.

• No. 27. + Enclosure 1. * Enclosure 2. § Enclosure 3.

Enclosure 4.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

EPELNIC.O. 882/11

muilumi

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO