:
Copy.
(F 3803/3510/10).
Paraphrase of telegram No. 367 from
Sir B. Alston (Peking) dated
26th September.
447
:
With reference to Hongkong telegram to Colonial Office
of 25th September, following telegram has been sent to Hongkong.
I have requested that the Government of Macao be informed by Portuguese Minister of importance of preventing any excuse being given to the Chinese Authorities for taking
retaliatory measures however provoked, and necessity for
quietening public opinion. It is impossible to do anything in
Peking, the Government being without power, but the British Consul General at Canton is doing everything possible to keep the peace. The Portuguese Minister is very agitated and wishes to ask for the help of United States Consul at Canton
and has protested formally to the Chinese Government, and I informed him that if he needed my help he should tell me, but that should hostilities break out, on the subject of Macao,
owing to the action of the Portuguese, he must understand that Great Britain would not go to war with China on that account. This telegram has been repeated to Canton.
1331 W&S Ltd.
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