CO129-454 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [4-6] — Page 300

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Sir,

Enclosure S

H. B. M. Consul-General to Acting Tuchun.

February 17th., 1919.

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I duly communicated to the Hongkong Government Your Excellency's despatch of January 20th. on the subject of the removal from Hongkong waters of the gunboat Kwangli, and was informed in reply that His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government was unable to accept the explanation therein offer- -ed. Mr. Severn sacerdingly requested me to press for the immediate return of the vessel and the tendering of a full apology

for the extraordinary action which had been taken in this matter.

Copies of reports made to the Hongkong authorities in comection

with the incident were also received by me and these I have had unofficially brought to Your Excellency's notice. I had hoped that

a perusal thereof would have resulted in action in the sense desired being taken, but as nothing so far has happened I am constrained once again to make the most serious representations to Your Excellency with a view to an immediate settlement of this

case. It is quite apparent from the statements furnished that the

abduction was carried out by the Canton Water Felice, a department nder Your Excellency's control and orders, and if they acted on their own initiative without instructions from Your Excellency it

to surely would be an easy matter to call them to account and t take

steps to deal with them for acting in a manner calculated to

imperià the relations between two friendly Governments.

The Military Government are at the present moment

seeking recognition at the hands of the Powers, and China as a

whole is presenting herself at the World's Peace Conference

with a view to claiming a sympathetic reconsideration of her place

among the nations. If, however, the British Government were compelled to point out, to this exalted tribunal that the

Government of the Province, in which the Headquarters of the

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