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CONFIDENTIAL.
RE
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48261
R2 OCT 23
203
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG. 25th August, 1923.
41275
My Lord Duke,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of Your Grace's telegram of the 20th August regarding the Salt Administration's vessel "Suinem".
It is necessary, in order to make the
position intelligible, to recount matters extending back over a period of several years.
2.
Then the split between North and South China
firet occurred, it was at once obvious to the opponents of
the Southern regime that Hongkong was ideally situated in
every respect for the double purpose of fostering disorder in Canton by means of political intrigue and of amassing material for an attack upon the Kwong Tung Province, whenever a favourable opportunity should present itself.
It was fully realised that such Government as might from
time to time manage to function in Peking must be accepted
by Hongkong as being the Government of China, a friendly
Power, while Canton must be regarded as a Province in
revolt, not having the status of a belligerent.
**
General Lung Chai-kwong was the first to
exploit these possibilities on a comprehensive scale, and
he utilized the period of a long stay in the Colony for the purpose of completing his arrangements for an attack which he eventually launched against the Southern part of
the
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE JUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G.,
BC..
*0.
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