CO129-481 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [8-12] — Page 217

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Enclosure 5.

REPUBLIC OF CHINA

GOVERNMENT HEADQUARTERS

Dear Mr.Fletcher,

CANTON.

C/O THE CENTRAL BANK

The Bund

Canton

July 21st, 1923.

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matter.

I am asked to solicit your good offices in a small

The Kwangtung Salt Administration owna a preventive vice vessel, the Suinam, which is being improperly detained by, a fira ames Parsons who is in the service of the Administration as its launch surveyor at Hongkong. The "Suinam" was despatched to the Colony for repair and has been ready for service for some little time. The cost of repair to the vessel was paid by the Administration last week.

Mr.Parsons refuses to return the "Suinan" to the Administration on the ground apparently that the present Chinese District Inspector has been appointed by Dr.Sun Yat Sen.

And, we understand, he has secured the co-operation of your Harbour official to prevent the Administration from seizing or otherwise taking possession of the "Suinam"

ofesion

On

The "Suinam" is the fittest vessel in the preventive fleet of the Administration and is urgently needed account of its speed (it makes 18 knots)-- for the suppression of salt smuggling and, incidently, to assist the Authorities here in dealing with piracy in the area to be patrolled by the vessel.

Owing to the recent disturbed state of the province, salt smuggling now prevails on a scale which gravely threatens the entire provincial salt organisation unless immediate steps are taken to deal with the evil. Whatever may be the merits of the question centring on the appointment by Dr.Sun, it is surely in the interests of the Salt Gabelle as a whole (i.e. of Peking as well as of Canton) that the Kwangtung Salt Adminis- tration should be preserved and maintained as an effective and efficient revemme-collecting machinery.

The present detention of the "Suinam by Mr.Parsons, who is a servant of the Kwangtung Salt Administration, is worse than the action of a dog in themanger; it not only prevents the Administration from making use of the vessel but disables the Administration from coping with an evil which may well destroy it as an effective revenue-collecting organisation.

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