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ENCLOSURE 2 IN No. 2.

Government House, Hongkong, 12th November, 1925.

Confidential. No. 66.

SIR,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your memo. dated 4th November, forwarding a copy of a letter from the Com- missioner of Foreign Affairs at Canton, dated 2nd idem, request- ing me to give orders for an investigation into the organisations established at Hongkong by Ch'en Ch'iung and Wei Pang-p'ing for fomenting disorder and for their immediate suppression, and further requesting that Ch'en and Wei be expelled from Hong. kong territory with a view to the preservation of peace in Kuang-tung and Hongkong and the maintenance of friendly relations between China and Britain.

2. I have the honour to request that you will inform the Com- missioner of Foreign Affairs at Canton in reply that it is my earnest desire that friendly relations should be maintained between China and Britain and especially between Canton and Hongkong, and further that, in the interest of both Canton and Hongkong I am most anxious that peace should be restored and preserved in Kuang-tung. The Commissioner of Foreign Affairs must, however, be aware that conditions in Hongkong are peaceful and that the abnormal and unhappy situation with respect to trade relations between Hongkong and Canton is due to the activities of certain Russian Bolshevik emissaries now established in Canton and plotting against both China and Great Britain. 1 strongly urge that the Canton Authorities inquire into the organi- sation and activities of these men against whose continued residence at Canton I take this opportunity of lodging an em- phatic protest.

3. I further request that these Russians should be expelled from Canton with a view to the restoration of friendly relations and of normal trade conditions between Canton and Hongkong.

4. As regards Ch'en and Wei I ask you to state that it has been, and is, the traditional policy of the Hongkong Government to prevent this Colony being used for political intrigue against the Chinese Government, and that I shall steadfastly adhere to that policy and take steps to expel any who evade it. I must, how- ever, first be satisfied that the Canton Authorities on their part will reciprocate by refusing to allow the Kuang-tung province to be used as a base for political intrigue against this Colony, and I should regard the expulsion of the individuals above referred to as a proof that the Canton Government is in earnest in this

matter.

I have, &c.,

C. CLEMENTI,

Governor, &c.

His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General, Canton.

ENCLOSURE 3 IN No. 2.

Extract from the South China Morning Post, Hongkong, of 12th November, 1925.

Speech by His Excellency the Governor at the Hongkong University on Armistice Day.

H. E. the Governor.

His Excellency the Governor, who was received with loud and prolonged applause on rising to speak, said: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen. It has been a very real pleasure to me to come among you this afternoon, and I thank you for the welcome you have extended to Sir Matthew Nathan and myself and for the entertainment you have given us. My interest in your University dates from its first beginning, for I was much concerned in the negotiations which led to its founda- tion and its original endowment, and I was present in this Great Hall at its inauguration. (Applause.) I had also, while in British Guiana, the honour of receiving from your former Chancellor, Sir Henry May, an intimation that this University wished to confer upon me its degree of LL.D., and inquiring whether I could attend to receive the degree in person. I had regretfully to reply that I then saw no hope of being able to revisit Hongkong. As, how- ever, I am now once again in Hongkong and am even your Chancellor, I am glad to have this early opportunity of assuring you of my abiding interest in your University, and I hope that if fortune so far favours me I may be able to dry some of those tears of which your Chairman spoke as being shed by the staff and undergraduates-(laughter)-and even perhaps to secure for you a portion of the Boxer indemnity to which you aspire. (Applause.)

Tribute to Undergraduates.

I also rejoice at having this opportunity so soon after my arrival of expressing to you my great appreciation of the very loyal manner in which you have supported your Alma Mater throughout the troubles in which this Colony it at present in- volved. (Applause.) Schoolboy folly, as I learn with indignation, made the first gesture in the recent strike and deliberately flouted both education and authority, but the undergraduates of the Hongkong University knew better than to participate in a move. ment so stupid and so injurious to everyone who has been misled into joining it. (Hear, hear.)

In each of its various manifestations this strike has done nothing but harm, but its most outrageous absurdity was the strike against education. After all, what is education? I should like to define it as a process which aims at drawing out from every human being the utmost which he or she is capable of giving in the cause of humanity. (Applause.) I would lay stress upon this word

"humanity," and remind you of a famous phrase in the Chinese classics, Within the four seas all are brothers." (Applause.) Anything more alien to the spirit of Confucianism

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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