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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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on them without endangering their own position. Moreover it was the general feeling in the Kuo-min-tang party, that while China was no match for the western Powers when it came to armed conflict, the trade boycott was the weapon with which she would have to achieve her independence. Any action, therefore. which looked like an attempt to suppress the Strike Committee would be regarded as a betrayal of Nationalist aspirations, and was not to be contemplated.

He expressed the hope that what he had said about extending the boycott would not be regarded by the British authorities as a threat, as he knew that the British reaction to a threat was merely a stiffening in opposition, but he wanted me to realize the possi- bilities of the situation.

I replied that I was glad to know what was in their minds, and on my side I also trusted that he would not regard what I was about to say as a threat. I then told him that the pickets had of late been altogether too free with their fire-arms on the river. Boats coming to the British steamer had been fired on every night for the last week, and only that morning pickets had seized a motor launch belonging to a British subject, and had shot at him We were not going while he made his escape along the bund.

to tolerate that sort of thing. We had gunboats in the river, and would put a stop to it, and if we found it necessary to take forcible action to curb the pickets on the river, I wanted him to realize that we were acting against what we regarded as a pirate organization and not against the Canton Government, with whom Ch'en replied that we desired if possible to be on friendly terms. the Government were trying to keep the pickets within bounds and to avoid a serious incident.

The conversation, in spite of its inflammable material, was con- ducted throughout in a friendly tone, and we parted with mutual expressions of goodwill, but the result was depressing, and I feel convinced that we shall get no solution of the boycott without the application of force, either by ourselves or the enemies of the present regime.

Ch'en made no mention of the proposed international enquiry, which he evidently does not regard as a serious proposition. I think, therefore, that we should send in our reply on that point, and so have done with it. On the other hand, he did say definitely that our offer of an industrial loan was not acceptable as a solu- tion of the difficulty. Our meeting was, of course, a private one. so that his statement on the subject of the loan cannot be treated as an official rejection..

I have put my account of this conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the form of a semi-official letter to you, as a convenient way of recording an interview which. Ch'en asked

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me to treat as entirely unofficial, but I am sending copies to the Foreign Office, Peking, Shanghai and Swatow.

His Excellency,

Secret.

SIR,

Sir Cecil Clementi, K.C.M.G.,

Hongkong.

Yours, &c.,

J. F. BRENAN.

ENCLOSURE 3 IN No. 31.

Government House, Hongkong, 2nd September, 1926.

I have the honour to forward the enclosed translation of a speech made by Mr. Sun Fo, and published by the Man Kwok Yat Po on the 27th August. I shall be glad if you will be good enough to ascertain from the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Canton Government whether Mr. Sun Fo did in fact make this speech, and at the same time point out to him that, if the report is correct, the present Canton Government is apparently completely identified with the outrageous acts and the still more outrageous aims of the Canton Strike Committee. In particular, the Hongkong Government desires to know whether it is or is not the policy of the present Canton Government to support “the Canton strikers "; whether it is or is not the policy of the present Canton Government to inflict such injury as it can upon Hong- kong: and whether it is or is not the policy of the present Canton Government to develop the anti-British boycott throughout China,"

I have, &c.,

[4

His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General,

Canton.

ENCLOSURE 5 IN No. 31.

C. CLEMENTI,

Governor, &c.

Government House, Hongkong, 5th August, 1926.

Confidential.

No. 162.

SIR,

I have the honour to invite your attention to the enclosed