CO885-11 — Page 26

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ཀ ། །

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

C2081/26S.

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No. 2.

The Governor of Hongkong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Secret.

SIR,

(Received 25th January, 1926.)

Government House, Hongkong, 23rd December, 1925)

When I arrived here on November 1st, I made it my chief duty to inform myself at once as to the political situation in China generally and at Canton in particular. On the 6th November I exchanged visits of ceremony with Admiral Li Ching-hsi, who is in command of the Chinese cruiser squadron in these waters, and whose flagship is the Hai Yung," Since then I have met him informally on several occasions. He stated that he was under the orders of Admiral Yang, whom I have not yet seen and whose headquarters appear to be at Shanghai. I asked Admiral Li to tell me from whom Admiral Yang gets his orders, and he replied vaguely: From the Minister of Marine at Peking "; but he subsequently informed me that the Minister of Marine

"had run away, and I infer that the Chinese Navy is now a law unto itself. However, Admiral Li, upon whose instructions I do not know, regards the present de facto Government at Canton as a rebel Government, and he considers himself to be at war with it. He accordingly maintained until recently a cruiser patrol at the mouth of the West River with the object of preventing arms and ammu- nition from reaching the Canton Government, and he also made it his business to prevent the Cantonese Red Army from crossing the Hainan Strait and occupying Hoihau, which is one of the sources of this Colony's meat supply. He has, however, now left for Shanghai, and has withdrawn all his cruisers from these waters, probably because he has neither money to pay his crews nor ammunition for his guns, and I doubt whether he will be able to give this Colony any further help for some time to come. 2. The position in and around Peking appears to be such that the so-called Chief Executive is wholly without power; and no matter what form of Government may be set up at Peking as a result of the conflicts now in progress between the various War Lords in the North, it seems certain that the present Canton Government will refuse to recognise its authority.

>

3. In Shanghai and the provinces at the mouth of the Yang-tse Marshal Sun Chuan-fang appears at present to be the dominant power, and he is, I am told, at the head of a well-drilled and well- equipped army of about 60,000 men. I have been informed that Marshal Sun is a native of Fukien Province; that he has been much incensed by the advance of the Cantonese Red Army under General Cheung Kai-shek north of Swatow to the frontier of the Fukien Province; that he is a determined enemy of the Russian Bolshevik influence in China; that he, like Admiral Li, regards the present de facto Government of Canton as a rebel Govern- ment, and that he has expressed his intention of marching south- ward through Fukien into Kuang-tung in order to overthrow the

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present Cantonese Soviet administration. I am endeavouring to test the accuracy of this information; but my impression is that no real help can be expected from Marshal Sun as regards Cantonese affairs for a considerable time, if at all.

4. The position at Canton itself is not yet very clear to me. There is no doubt that the present de facto Government is a Soviet of the Russian type with Mr. Wong Tsing-wai as Chair- man and Dr. C. C. Wu (a son of the late Mr. Wu Ting-fang) as its principal foreign adviser, while Mr. Sung Tsz-man is in control of financial affairs. I doubt whether any of these three could properly be described as Red," but they have certainly been under Russian influence; they have been financed with Russian money; Russian military officers have trained their troops, and munitions of war have been supplied to them from Russia via Vladivostock. At least two members of the Canton Soviet, namely Mr. Chan Kung-pok and Mr. Tam Peng-shan, are undoubtedly "Red" and so was Mr. Liu Chung-hoi, who has recently been assassinated. The forces of the Canton Govern- ment are mainly under the command of General Cheung Kai-shek who is said to be a professional soldier and not a politician. I can get no reliable information concerning him, and I do not know how far he is under Bolshevik influence. His troops have certainly been drilled and equipped by Russians.

5. As regards the Russians themselves, there is again no reliable evidence, but I believe the truth to be that they do not exceed 200 in number and may even be as few as 50, and that both their numbers and their influence have of late been steadily decreasing. Admiral Basire, who commands the French Fleet on this Station, told me recently on the authority of the French Consul at Canton that a Russian officer recently had a dispute with a Chinese officer in Canton, that in the course of the alter- cation the Russian put his hand on the Chinaman's shoulder, that the Chinaman thereupon whipped out a revolver and shot the Russian dead; that Borodin, who is the head of the Bolshevik Mission in Canton, so far from feeling himself strong enough to protest against this act, had been obliged to ignore it. I incline to believe that the Chinese are already heartily sick of their Russian advisers, and would be thankful to get rid of them, I may say in this connection that shortly after my arrival I received through Sir James Jamieson a formal despatch from the Canton Government, dated the 2nd November, requesting me to expel from Hongkong Mr. Chan Kwing-ming and Mr. Ngai Pong-peng, who are the avowed enemies of the present Canton Soviet. I replied on the 12th November pointing out that it was the traditional policy of the Hongkong Government to prevent this Colony from being used for political intrigue against the Chinese Government; that I should steadfastly adhere to that policy and expel any who evade it; but that I must first be satis- fied that the Canton Authorities will reciprocate by refusing to allow the Kuang-tung province to be used as a base for political intrigue against this Colony, and that I should regard the expul- sion of the Russian Bolshevik emissaries now in Canton as a proof that the Canton Government is in earnest in this matter. I attach copies of these two letters. No further communication on this subject has been received by me from the Canton Govern-

ment.