CO129-357 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1909 [7-9] — Page 271

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HİSARY I

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onfidential.

Enclosure 2.

Dear Sir Frederick Lugard,

H. B. M. Consulate-generat

Canton, July 26th., 1909.

29843 lacce REG? 6 SEP

Referring to our recent conversation on the

subject of the "Patshan" case, I gladly avall myself of your

invitation to place the opinions I expressed to you on that

occasion in writing.

I cannot understand why Messrs. Butterfield

and Swire, the largest and probably the wealthiest British

firm in China, a firm who have, for the past twenty-five years,

taken a prominent part in the development of British mercantile

enterprise in the Far East, a firm who have, on more than one

occasion, deliberately suffered financial loss in order to

maintain a principle or defend their Treaty rights (I instance

their successful efforts to inaugurate steam navigation on the

West River and inland waters of China), should, by reason of

the threats and at the bidding of a small band of irresponsible

and unscrupulous agitators in Canton, headed by a man who is a

notorious blackmailer (Li Kai Hi, banished from Hongkong in

1908 for complicity in the Japanese Boycott Riots), entirely

abandon a position in the "Fatshan" case, which they themselves,

with the assistance of the British authorities, have successful-

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