CO129-402 - Governor Sir May - 1913 [7-8] — Page 355

t.

19

CANTON INTELLIGENCE REPORT FOR THE T.

ENDED 30th JUNE, 1913.

MONTÉS.........

29584

347

POLITICAL.

Rece Reo£25 AUG 13

黎元洪

龍濟光

烟明 政長 脱常

撫使

Brit of Hu Han Min.

At the date of the despatch of the last Intelligence

Report (May 5th), the Canton Goverment had declared their

intention to contest the autocratic methods of President Yuan

in connection with the conclusion of the Reorganization Loan and

to compel him, at whatever cost, to lay the Agreement before the

Assembly for approval or else consider it annulled. The con-

test, if so it can be called, was over in a fortnight. Yuan

telegraphed to Hu - as also to the Tu Tus of Kiangsi, Anhui and

Hunarı - reprimanding him for what he could attribute only to

ignorance or to stupidity. Li Yuan Hung let it be known that

his army was prepared to support the Central Government, General

Lung Chi-kuang appeared ready for an invasion from Kuanghsi.

Even the people of Kuangtung showed no anxiety to come to the

assistance of their own Goverment. One by one the various

influential bodies in the province, the Chamber of Commerce, the

Guilds, the District Assemblies, tele graphed to Peking their

support of the Loan and their desire for the establishment of a

strong Central Goverment. Only the Provincial Assembly, a body

of no political or any other importance, sought to keep up the

Loan agitation. On the 21st of May the newspapers published

Hu's resignation on the score of ill-health and want of finan-

cial and political support. On June 9th a Presidential Mandate

dismissed his colleague in Kiangsi and five days later he was

himself superseded by his Commander-in-Chief, Ch'en Chiung King,

while the post of Civil Governor, Min Cheng Chang, was given to

an ex-Imperial official in Kirin, Tu Tu Ch'en Chao-ch'ang. Hu

was relegated to Tibet as Pacification Commissioner.

*His

relations with the people* Yuan telegraphed to the Army, "were

never