CO129-481 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [8-12] — Page 566

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He accepted and I asked a few leading people to

meet him, being most careful to avoid any appearance of an

official reception. Tas I wrong? Sun Yat Sen is a great

figure in China, probably in the popular estimation even

of his enemies, the greatest Chinese alive. Should I

have been right in refusing to extend to him the courtesy

which I should shew as a matter of course to any eminent

stranger from Europe or America?

As a matter of fact, there is no question

that by receiving hia courteously I did good work for the

Colony and the Empire. He was very ill-disposed to Hong

Kong and to the British when previously in Hong Kong and we paid for it by the general strike. Since his return we have

had no labour troubles and I am convinced that he was sincere

in his statement to me that he now realised that the

interests of Hong Kong and Canton go together and that he

wanted to work with the British and not against them.

Everything went well until this unhappy business

of the Cutoma cropped up. When the Powers threatened to

interfere by force in the event of his seizing the Custome

he sent down Eugene Ch'en to see me with a letter, a copy

of