CO129-481 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [8-12] — Page 567

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This

of which is enclosed in my confidential despathe of 19th

December to which I beg leave to refer Your Grace,

letter, supplemented as it was by verbal messages, contains a clear indication of his policy. If the Powers interfered

to stop his cherished project of preventing Peking from getting funds for further attacks on him ( - his point being that if Peking doesn't get these revenues it will have to employ in settling the claims of the Powers money which it would otherwise use for expeditions against the South ) he would ravenge himself on the easiest victim –

Hong Kong and British trade.

It was,

I submit, a matter of vital interest to

thie Colony that, if it were at all possible, he should

That he not be driven to put his threats into action. intended to do so, I have no doubt whatever. The only doubt was whether he could. He has, unquestionably, lost some of his influence owing to his plundering the wealthy olasses and conseibing the poor but he still has great power. He could, I believe, paralyse Hong Kong trade, practically put an end to British imports into a very large

part