CO885-11 — Page 140

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

268

(b) As stated in the 2nd paragraph of my secret despatch of the 12th September the s.s. Foo-shing," owned by Messrs, Jardine, Matheson & Company, had, between the 9th and 12th September, made a successful and uneventful voyage from Hongkong to Canton and back with cargo both

ways.

had

(c) The Cantonese northern punitive expedition captured Han-yang and Hankow, but not Wu-ch'ang. The military situation was, however, still obscure, because Marshal Sun Ch'uan-fang had not yet taken decisive military action in spite of the ultimatum issued by him to General Cheung Kai-shek. Some risings by troops of General Ch'an Kweng-meng against the Canton Government had already taken place in the East River Valley and in Hainan Island: and the loyalty to General Cheung Kai-shek of the "red generals now at Canton and Swatow is suspect. I refer you in this connection to the series of my secret despatches. ending with that of yesterday's date, on the civil war in southern China.

(d) The incident at Wan-hsien on the upper Yangtsze does not directly affect our dealings with the Canton Gover: ment; but we consider that, unless the action recommenderi by the Naval Commander-m-Chief on the China Station in his telegram to the Admiralty, dated the 11th September, is taken without delay, our prestige in the Far East will suffer heavily and it will become even more difficult for us to arrive at an honourable settlement in Kuang-tung.

British

7. There remain two other very important matters. steamers have been fired at indiscriminately with field-guns and rifles by the Canton Expeditionary Forces above and below Han- kow. On instructions from His Majesty's Minister at Peking Mr. Brenan wrote an official despatch, dated the 10th September, to the Minister for Foreign Affairs at Canton requesting that immediate telegraphic orders should be sent by the Canton Government to the army commanders concerned to put a stop to these outrages. No official reply to this communication has so far been received, but Mr. Brenan wrote to me on the 13th September:-"The Minister for Foreign Affairs has given me a verbal assurance, for what it is worth, that immediate instruc- tions will be telegraphed to the troops concerned to cease firing Such a verbal assurance is. on foreign ships on the Yangtsze." of course, entirely worthless; and the fact of the matter is that the Canton Government is in no position to give any "instruc- tions" to its Generalissimo. Since then Mr. Ch'ên has written Mr. Brenan a letter dated the 14th September, of which I enclose a copy, and which gives no satisfactory assurance whatsoever.

8. Finally there was the speech of Mr. Sun Fo at Canton, a copy of which was enclosed in my secret despatch of the 2nd

* C.19548-26; not printed. +C.19550 28; not printed.

Enclosure 10.

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September, and there is the further speech of his, a translation of which, taken from a Canton newspaper, I now attach.† Con- cerning the first speech, Mr. Brenan wrote to the Canton Govern- ment a despatch dated the 10th September, and concerning the latter, a despatch dated the 15th September. I enclose copies of both these despatchest. No reply has yet been received to either. These speeches of Mr. Sun Fo, who is Mayor of Canton and a member of the Canton Soviet, and whose name carries great weight inasmuch as he is a son of the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen, completely identify the Canton Government with the outrageous acts and still more outrageous aims of the Canton Strike Com- mittee. If he has been correctly reported (as to which there can be little doubt, as the speeches appeared in a newspaper which is the vernacular organ of the present Government), it is evident that the Canton Strike Committee has the full support of the Canton Government, that the Canton Government, no less than the Canton Strike Committee, aims at doing what injury it can to the British Colony of Hongkong, and that the Canton Govern ment intends, if it can do so, to extend the anti-British boycott all over China. This is a very grave matter; and, if such is really the policy of the Canton Government, then a British policy of Any peaceful conciliation is plainly pre-doomed to failure. resumption of negotiations with the Canton Government, unless and until wholly satisfactory replies have been received to both Mr. Brenan's letters of the 10th September, would almost amount to overlooking these most serious incidents.

9. In these circumstances we agreed at the Government House conference on the 13th September, and this opinion was unani- mously confirmed at a meeting of the Executive Council on the 16th September, that no reply should at present be made to the Canton proposal of an international inquiry.

10. We also agreed unanimously at the Government House conference on the 13th September and in Executive Council on the 16th September-and I am glad to find that His Majesty's Minister at Peking in his telegram to the Foreign Office, No. 314, of the 15th September supports this view-that. if satisfactory replies are not received this week to Mr. Brenan's two letters of the 10th September, our next step should be to demand within twenty-four hours an explicit undertaking that all anti-British manifestations in all territory controlled by the Canton Govern- ment should cease forthwith and that all British shipping on the Yangtsze and elsewhere will be respected by the troops of the Canton Government, failing which we will act as to us seems proper,

11. We believe that, in view of the present critical situation of the Cantonese army on the Yangtsze and the hazardous political conditions in Kuang-tung, this threat alone may suffice. The Canton Government was frightened by the naval action takon on the 4th September and this threat will frighten them very much more. If, however, the threat alone does not suffice, then we submit that the ports of Canton and Swatow should at once

• C.20001/26; not printed. ↑ Not printed. + Enclosures 12 and 13.