CO885-11 — Page 182

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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

کا

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Such a record of the heroism of our marines at Hankow would, I venture to think, instantly have convinced the most ardent pacifist in England that human patience was capable of no greater heights.

suggest that cinematograph pictures are invaluable.

8. I invite special attention to the statement attributed to Mr. Eugene Ch'ên that the Nationalist Government does not intend to resume the French concession at Hankow for the present.-

9. Mrs. Sun's manifesto illustrates the effort being made by Bol- shevism to stir up a revolutionary spirit in Chinese womanhood and is a good example of the influence of Madame Borodin, who ably seconds her husband in his sinister work.

hushand

C.30001/27 [No. 39.]

No. 4.

I have, etc.,

C. CLEMENTI,

Governor, de.

The Governor of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for the

• Colonies.

(Secret.) SIR,

(Received 21st March, 1927.)

Government House, Hong Kong, 17th February, 1927.

I have the honour to transmit the undermentioned documents* in continuation of my secret despatch of the 12th February,† on the political situation:—

(a) Copy of a report by the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Non Territories, dated the 13th February, on various incidents affecting the Northern District of the New Territories, including the poster incident mentioned in paragraph 2 of my despatch under reference.

(b) Translation of an extract from the Man Kwok Tut Po of the 17th January, reporting an inspection of the Canton prison establish- ments by certain Russian advisers of the Nationalist Administration. Monsieur Choustiere appears to hold the post of Second Secretary to the Soviet Embassy. The other two are unknown.

(c) An extract from the Kwok Man San Man, Canton, of the 24th January, containing & communiqué on the Hankow incident by the Central Propaganda Committee of the Kuomintang.

(d) Four extracts from the Man Kwok Yat Po, Canton, of the 24th January, three dealing with the events at Hankow, and the fourth purporting to give the text of a letter from the Head of Kansit Province to the Canton Government notifying the adhesion of that province to the Kuomintang.

(e) An extract from the Man Kwok Yat Po of the 25th January, 1927, containing the report of the President of the Nationalist Goveri- ment to the 3rd Representative Conference of the Kuomintang held in Kiangsi. General T'ong mentioned in this document is T'ong Shang-chi,

+ No. 3.

Not printed.

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an old adherent of General T'am Yin-hoi, the President in question, General T'ong contrived to formerly Military Governor of Hunan. maintain himself in Southern Hunan, when his chief was expelled from the province by Marshal Wu P'ei-fu, and maintained through this channel his connection with Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang. When Canton organized the Northern Expedition, General T'ong took a prominent part in the recapture of Hunan from his old enemy General Chiu Hang-t'ik. General Tam Yin-hoi, who became acting Chairman of the Canton Soviet last year after the expulsion of Mr. Wong Teng-wai, is the son of a former Viceroy of the Liang Kuang provinces. (f) Au extract from the Man Kwok Yat Po, Canton, of the 30th January, containing a rejoinder to the British memorandum on Chinese policy, treating the proposals made therein as a cloak for giving, or rather continuing, assistance to the enemies of Chinese Nationalism, and rejoicing in the international discord which it is held to reveal.

(y) An extract from the Man Kwok Yat Po, Canton, of the 7th February, containing & communiqué by General Cheung Kai-shek on the strength of the opposing forces in China's civil war and en- larging on the successes of the Nationalist armies.

2. Attention is specially invited to the frank admission contained in enclosure (c) that the Hankow incident was the work of the masses guided by the Nationalist Government and a step towards the estab- listment of a dictatorship of the proletariat on the ruins of the British Empire. This statement is issued in the name of the Central Pro- paganda Committee of the Kuomintang in a known organ of that party and without doubt it represents the settled policy of that section of the Kuomintang which brought about the invasion of Hankow and aims at frustrating all endeavours to reach a reasonable and amicable settlement between Great Britain and the Nationalist Government.

3. I would also invite you to note the admission in enclosure (e)* that the boycott of Hong Kong by the Canton Strike Committee was really a weapon in the Nationalist armoury, one which the holder aban- doned when it became inconveniently double-edged. Throughout the negotiations between this Colony and Canton for the cessation of the boycott, Canton never ceased hypocritically to contend that the strike and boycott were spontaneous movements having primarily an economic basis and in no way connected with the Canton Government.

4. It gives me much pleasure to be able to report that the vernacular propaganda bureau, started in Hong Kong at the suggestion of Dr. 1. H. Kotewall, C.M.G., during the 1925 crisis, is meeting with great It has been for the last twelve months in the and increasing success. very able hands of Mr. Lau Tsz-p'eng, who was at one time confidential clerk to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and has an intimate know- ledge of the political intrigues of China during the last two decades. The bureau devotes most of its energies to the production of Chinese pamphlets, broadsheets and leaflets having the appearance of being entirely spontaneous protests against the actions of the extremist section of the Canton Soviet. The tyranny and hardships which a communist régime involves to the masses themselves are kept before the working classes by means of examples drawn from current events in Canton

• Not printed.

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