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Consul-General Jamieson to H. M. Chargé d'Affaires,Peking.
C.O.
No. 33.
32192
H. B. M. Consulate-General,
RECE Rect 15 SEP 13
Canton, August 19, 1913.
Sir,
In continuation of my despatch No. 29 of the 19th. ultimo and amplifying the telegrams noted in the margin, I have the
honour to report as follows on the events in Canton during the past month.
Chen Tu Tu 's official declaration of the indepen-
-dence of Kuangtung on July 18th. followed a lengthy visit which he
paid the previous day to the Japanese Consul, who, with his col-
-league from Hongkong, appears to have persuaded him to cast in his
lot with the rebel provinces. The Declaration was welcomed neither
by the troops nor by the Cantonese generally. The merchant class was entirely unsympathetic and the Provincial Assembly ratified it
only under coercion. A Presidential Mandate deposed Ch'en from the
office of Tu Tu and appointed General Lung Chi-kuang Pacification
Commissioner.
There is no doubt that, as head of the Kuo Min Tang
in Kuangtung, Ch'en was compelled to declare his position and to support Li Liah-chun and the other leaders of the party in their
dispute with the President. But from the start his cause was a hope- -less one, more especially as he was totally unaware of the extent to which the regular forces of the province were being seduced from allegiance to himself by agents of President Yuan. Half-heart- -edly he commenced preparation for a punitive expedition against Yuan, but he found himself helpless from lack of funds. Provincial notes stood at a discount of 70% and when he sought a loan of four million dollars from the Chamber of Commerce, that body immediately dissolved itself. He was harassed also by a threatened invasion from Kuanghsi under Lung Chi-kuang and obliged to divert part of his embryonic expedition to check Lung's advance down the Vest River. He had placed much confidence in the local influence of the
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