CO885-11 — Page 43

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

CC.O.882/11

سنسان.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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"negotia- If I had known all the circumstances of the recent tions," as I now do, I would have strongly urged against any delegation such as ours coming up, unless and until information has been received from or through the Strike Union that they would negotiate with such delegation, because it was bound to fail, as ours had failed, and because an unfortunate and un favourable atmosphere might have been created for future nego- tiations. Happily, we avoided this. Indeed, I feel justified in saying that the whole atmosphere has been improved by our coming up, because every step we took was taken with that end in view.

You will readily understand that this report has been made out in a great hurry; I must therefore ask you to excuse all errors and mistakes which are necessarily unavoidable.

I have, &c.,

M. K. Lo.

011

Lung Shan " We came up from Hongkong by the s.s. the 30th December, 1925, and arrived at 2.05 p.m. After wait- ing for some_considerable time representatives of the four Chambers of Commerce and of Mr. Fu Ping Sheung and Mr. C. C. Wu met us and took us ashore in three motor boats.

After going to our rooms at the Hotel Asia, we went to call on Mr. Fu Ping Sheung, whom we met, and at the same time we met Mr. Lok King Fo. From there we went to call at the General Chamber of Commerce, where we met their representa tives. After preliminary greetings, the Chairman intimated that as merchants of Canton and Hongkong were in the same boat regarding the present crisis we could talk freely and privately so that they might know our views; and after ascertaining from us the fact that we represented only the Chinese community, and not the European community nor the Hongkong Government, they thought the settlement would be difficult in view of the nature of the demands on which the strikers insisted, and which not only relate to the Chinese but also the Europeans and the Hongkong Government. They said they realised that important questions such as those concerning Shameen and Shanghai had been reserved to be dealt with by Peking. But other demands related to non-Chinese. They instanced the demands concerning reinstatement and strike pay and stated that to their knowledge these were demands on which the strikers absolutely insisted I expressed the view that the question of reinstatement was im possible and gave as reasons some of the grounds which had been discussed among our delegation and the two members of Council before we went up and stated that our object was to discuss the matter with the strikers and see how far the matter could be settled by other means.

After some further general discussion we called on the com- mittee of the strikers. The Chairman was out and we were received by the Vice-Chairman. After preliminary greetings, we expressed the hope that they would fix an early date for us to meet so that the matter could be settled as soon as possible. The Vice-Chairman enquired of our authority and our views and

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Mr. Li Yau Chuen replied generally. The Vice-Chairman then said that a letter would be sent to us the next morning. We then called to see Mr. C. C. Wu, by whom we were received, and after the usual greetings we left. But before we left he stated to Mr. Li Yau Chuen that he could see a few of us at his house at 9 p.m. that day (in reply to Mr. Li's request for his personal views and guidance, &c.).

The delegation attended a dinner given by the Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Li, Mr. Ma and myself left the dinner carly to go to We left Mr. Wu's house, which we reached soon after 9 p.m. after 11 p.m., having spent over two hours in discussion. Before trying to give the gist of the conversations I can say at once that the general impression produced on the minds of all three of us, as the result of Mr. Wu's talk and attitude, was one of We left unrelieved gloom, disappointment and, despondency. with a heavy heart and we felt that the chance of an early settle. ment was extremely remote if not impossible.

Mr. Wu began questioning us closely as to our powers and whom we represented, and he said that he did so, not because it was his personal concern but because he felt that the Strikers' Union would raise this point before any meeting. After stating our position thoroughly as regards our authority; &c., Mr. Wi thought that, in the absence of any authentic document con- ferring on us the necessary powers, the Union would not be I stated that as our whole able to discuss the matter with us. object was an early settlement I hoped that no formality would stand in the way of our meeting the Strikers' Union, because if any such settlement could be reached, any formal confirmation of our authority would be readily forthcoming.

After ascertaining from us what we proposed to do by way of settling the matter (i.e. by raising a fund to the best of our ability by way of payment to the strikers in lieu of reinstatement. &c.), Mr. Wu said he knew that the strikers were most insistent upon the terms of reinstatement and strike pay and we spent a long time in discussing these questions. Mr. Wu said that these two demands had come to be more or less-stereotype in all strikes; that he fully understood our difficulties which he had always appreciated; at the same time as the strikers struck work, not for economical reasons, but merely from patriotic motives, the Canton Government could not possibly force them to return to work. As regards reinstatement, he instanced the case of Shameen, which we distinguished on the ground that the strike there had lasted only a short time. Mr. Wu thought the matter was not impossible, especially as the chief European employers were big companies. He agreed that the Hongkong Govern- ment could not pass legislation but could easily influence such big European employers. Mr. Wu informed us that the strikers con- sidered that we were sent by the Hongkong Government to shield the Europeans (as if two parties were having pistols drawn at one another, and a third party rushed in between) and that we had been given a fool's errand.

We explained that the only object of our mission was to effect a settlement thereby mitigating the already heavy losses of the