CO129-477 - Public Offices - 1922 — Page 280

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] ` 279

CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

{April 14.

SECTION 1.

[F 1496/927/10]

No. 1.

April 14.1

Consul-General Jamieson to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston. - (Received

(No. 2.) My Lord,

Canton, March 14, 1922.

I HAVE the honour to forward herewith copies of a despatch, which I have addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking, reporting on the course and conclusion of the seamen's strike at Hong Kong.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

I have, &c.

J. W. JAMIESON.

No. 7. Confidential.) Sir,

Consul-Generul Jamieson to Sir B. Alston,

Canton, March 11, 1922. AS I had the honour to report by telegraph on the 6th instant, a definite settlement of the seamen's strike in Hong Kong was effected late on the evening of the previous day.

2. Now that conditions in the colony and Canton are once more becoming normal, I will endeavour, with whatfclarity I can command, briefly to outline the history of this unfortunate and troublesome dispute, to indicate the sources of origin, and to forecast its probable results.

(a.) History.

3. The shipowners propose shortly to draw up a full statement of the course of the abortive negotiations between the seamen and themselves, which commenced in November last, and I will therefore not attempt to follow it, especially as I am not personally conversant with the intimate details thereof and their main features have

already been published by the press. The salient points, however, were the withdrawal at a very early stage of the increase in wages which they offered after the men walked out on the 12th January, 1922-an offer not renewed until the 9th February, and then only without prejudice to the finding of ar arbitration board -and the closing down by the Colonial Government on the 1st February of the Seamen's Union, which was declared an unlawful society. The first gave the seamen, who subsequently made two reductions of their originally preposterous demands, the opportunity of proclaiming a grievance. The Kwangtung Government and disinterested outsiders felt lisposed to agree with them. The second afforded them an opportunity of appealing to the world at large against high-handed tyranny, and at one period the Southern Republican Government contemplated testing the legality of the action of the Hong Kong Govern- ment in the courts. Thereto the response was that the owners were at all times prepared to abide by the decision of an impartial tribunal of arbitration to sit in Hong Kong, and that the men were unreasonable in declining to do so likewise. The seamen, on grounds which seemed to them sound, distrusted the impartiality of a tribunal sitting in Hong Kong, and made a counter-suggestion of a tribunal to sit in Canton- suggestion which could not, of course, be entertained. Thus the weary wrangle went on until the end of February, by which time a situation had been created which gave serious cause for alarm to the Governments both of Kwangtung and Hong Kong. On the 1st March the latter suggested that I should go to Hong Kong and talk matters over with all concerned, more especially as I had been able to induce the Civil Governor of the province to urge the seamen to send plenipotentiary delegates to Hong Kong, accompanied by a delegation from the Canton Chinese Chamber of Commerce, to discuss matters with the shipowners and the Government. The first meeting, over which I presided, took place on the 4th March and lasted from 11 A., till 6 P.M., by which hour it was felt that a definite agreement had been reached. Later in the evening, when the

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