CO885-11 — Page 169

169

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

326

The

Government will succeed in suppressing anti-British agitation and that the trade position will, by degrees, become normal. local manager of the Asiatic Petroleum Company holds a similar hopeful view. Naval reports from places in the delta, other than Canton, indicate that all is quiet, that labour is available, and that there is no interference with shipping.

4. It will be seen from this and my previous despatches on the same subject that the situation varies from week to week, and it is as yet impossible to form any definite opinion as to how far the boycott is really over, and how long it will be before our rela tions with the neighbouring Chinese Provinces again become normal, but I would once more emphasise the fact that, so long as we refuse to accord formal recognition to the Canton Govern ment, so long we are playing into the hands of our enemies and prolonging our own troubles.

I have, &c.,

C. CLEMENTI,

Governor, &c.

C 30001/27 [No. 5.]

No. 44.

The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the

(Secret.)

SIR,

Colonies.

(Received 6th January, 1927.)

Government House, Hongkong, 3rd December, 1926.

With reference to my secret despatch of the 20th November,* I have the honour to encloset the following documents concern- ing the boycott:-

(1) A copy of an extract from a report by the Assistant Superintendent of Police, New Territories, dated the 28th November, 1926, concerning the position on the frontier.

(2) Copies of extracts from letters, dated 24th and 29th November, and 3rd December, from the Hongkong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company, Limited, giving details of cargo and passengers for the period from the 15th November to the 2nd December.

2. The temporary improvement in the number of passengers travelling from Canton on the Hongkong, Canton and Macao

↑ Not printed. *

* No. 43.

327

Steamboat Company's steamers between the 17th and 23rd November coincided with the negotiations between the Company and the Seamen's Union, details of which are given in the memo- randa forming enclosures Nos. 4 and 5 of my secret despatch of the 20th November.* During that period the pickets were with- But as soon as the Union drawn from the Company's wharf. learnt that the Company's Directors had confirmed the attitude taken up by Mr. Arnold at the conference of the 15th November, picketing was re-imposed and is still in force. Informal nego- tiations are, however, continuing, and in view of the fact that, as the improved cargo returns show, the cargo workers are no longer supporting the Union, the Company are not without hope that more acceptable terms of settlement may be forthcoming.

3. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation reports a slight general improvement in deliveries of piece-goods and similar cargo for which the neighbouring provinces of China form the market.

4. It has now apparently been decided by the Political Council of the Kuomintang that its headquarters and the seat of the Nationalist Government shall be removed from Canton to Wuchang. The first party of high officials headed by General Tam Yen Kai, Chairman of that Government, is reported to be leaving Canton for the new capital on the 5th December, and it is to be anticipated that Canton and Kuang-tung generally, with the exception of the military schools and similar establishments belonging to the central organisation of the party, will shortly be under the control of a purely provincial administration headed by General Li Chai-sam.

manner.

5. Labour in Canton continues to act in a very high-handed In addition to picketing the British river steamers, the Seamen's Union has instituted a boycott of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, Limited, a Chinese concern, on the ground that this Company has assisted Marshal Sun Ch'uan-fang in his operations against the Nationalist forces. All members of the Union employed on the Company's steamers at Canton have walked out and three of their vessels are detained there unable to unload the cargo brought from Shanghai. A general strike of rice-shop employees is also reported to have caused the tem- porary closure of most of the shops employed in this trade, force being applied to ensure compliance by non-unionists.

6. The so-called Hongkong and Canton Strike Committee, whose headquarters at Tun Yuen in Canton were recently destroyed by fire, is reported to be about to re-establish itself in new premises on the same site. If this is permitted, it is to be anticipated that there will be a revival of the acts of piracy and strike pickets," which have formed the brigandage by so-called subject of so many of my past reports. There is, however, a more satisfactory, but perhaps unreliable, item of news in this

• No. 49.

{

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

mimim

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO