CO885-11 — Page 34

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سائسلسا

PUBLIC RECORD

T :། ། །

OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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business in Hongkong and elsewhere to settle all outstanding accounts. Unless a settlement of the boycott is made by an early date in January next, it is probable that there will be acute finan- cial trouble among the Hongkong Chinese; and, although I should use the trade loan as far as possible to save any reputable business from bankruptcy, the trouble might possibly be too wide- I need not spread to be successfully alleviated by such means. say that such a crisis would be direct encouragement to the Strike Committee and to the Bolsheviks to tighten their stranglehold on Hongkong and to demand terms of settlement more extrava- gant than are likely to be put forward at present.

6. The chief benefit to be hoped for from a settlement is the resumption of normal trade relations between Hongkong and Canton. The boycott has shown that it is possible for Canton to make itself to a certain extent independent of this Colony: and the longer the boycott lasts, the greater is the probability of a permanent loss of trade to Hongkong; for Hongkong cannot make itself independent of Canton. Indeed the reason for the wonderful growth of Hongkong is to be found in the fact that it is the best deep-sea port for the commerce of a Province inhabited by more than 40 millions of Chinese. There are, how- ever, other ports-though none are so good or so conveniently situated and it is not in the interests of this Colony that trade should be diverted to them. I am convinced that the prosperity of Hongkong depends mainly upon the maintenance of friendly, and even intimate, relations between this Government and the Government of Kuang-tung; and the sooner the present sore which is festering and may become chronic can be healed, the better it will be for British interests not only in Hongkong but throughout China.

7. As regards the proposed payment of blackmail, I may say that, however repugnant such payment is to British habits of thought, a settlement on the lines now contemplated is customary in China and would not be considered by the Chinese to be unusual. It is the amount to be paid, rather than the fact of payment, which will exercise the minds of Chinese merchants both here and in Canton.

8. After a full discussion of all these considerations which I presented to the Executive Council very much in the manner in which I have set them out in this despatch, it was unanimously agreed that the Hongkong Government would not be justified in obstructing a settlement on the following lines. The Chinese Members of the Legislative Council-Mr. Chow Shou-son and Mr. Kotewall-will arrange that the prominent Chinese mer chants of Hongkong should elect from among their number delegates (other than Mr. Chow and Mr. Kotewall) to visit Canton and bargain with representatives of the Strike Committee and of the Cantonese merchants as to the sum of money to be paid to end the boycott. The delegates from Hongkong will then return and report both to the Chinese and the European merchants of Hongkong the sum agreed upon as the result of their bargaining. The merchants will then decide whether the payment should be made.

9. I have made it clear that the Hongkong Government cannot be a party to negotiations such as these and that the Trade Loan

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cannot be made available for such a payment to the Strike Com- mittee.

10. This afternoon Mr. Chow Shou-son and Mr. Kotewall met all the Chinese Justices of the Peace, the Executive Committee of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, representatives of the 24 mercantile guilds, the members of the District Watch Committee, the senior members of the Tung Wa Hospital Committee, bankers and other responsible merchants, who decided unanimously that the boycott should be settled as soon as possible, that the Chinese merchants should elect five to nine representatives to go to Canton to find out the sum to be paid and to reduce it if possible, and that a meeting of all important institutions, trade guilds, &c., should be held at 10.30 a.m. on 26th December to elect repre- sentatives to go to Canton.

11. This despatch confirms and amplifies the telegraphic message* which I sent to you to-day on this subject.

+

I have. &c.,

C. CLEMENTI,

ENCLOSURE IN No. 3.

Diary of Visit to Canton.

20th to 23rd December, 1925.

Governor, &c.

Mr. T. V. Sung and I left Hongkong at 9 a.m. in H.M.S. Tarantula." We got into conversation regarding the situation almost immediately, and our discussion continued during the greater part of the voyage. Mr. Sung appeared to me to be a well- educated man, with a thorough grasp of the situation, and holding to express to good most decided views, which he was able advantage.

Mr. Sung agreed that the strike and boycott were political in origin and that it was Hongkong's misfortune rather than her fault that the brunt of the trouble fell on her. The roots of the matter were deep in the past. The foreigner had come to China largely against China's will. He had forcibly established him- self in all the great centres of trade and he had fenced himself in with settlements and extra territoriality. He had refused her autonomy, and had regulated tariffs to suit his own convenience. The incidents at Shanghai and subsequent events were an outward and visible sign that China's patience was strained to breaking point. A new nation was being born and the Chinese would never again consent to tolerate the old order of things. China was disunited and powerless to assert herself by force of arms. and so she used the only weapons available, the strike and the boycott. The action taken against Hongkong, whatever the im- mediate cause, was a method chosen for the expression of an intense conviction on the part of the masses that China was not getting fair play.

*58043725; not printed.

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