CO129-483 - Others & Individuals - 1923 — Page 216

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I saw Sir William Tyrrell about this to-day.

I said it was impossible to do anything in the matter just now in the absence of the Secretary of State and Sir James Masterton Smith, but that I would take it

up as soon as they returned. Sir W.Tyrrell was quite

content with this.

I put the view that any Governor of hongkong was bound to be influenced by the defacto masters of Canton for the time being. Hongkong was really part of

Kwang-tung and bound to keep in with the Cantonese. However incompatible with general policy they might be, the Governor was bound to put forward requests and

suggestions made to him on behalf of Kwang-tung; and

so long as neither he nor the Colonial Office took any

action without the approval of the Foreign Office no

harm was done. The Governor in fact was in the position

of a general in charge of a minor campaign in a big

war, bound to put forward demands for troops etc.,

although he knew the Government could not grant them.

Sir William Tyrrell said he had always

recognised the difficulties of the Governor of Hongkong

and had represented them to Lord Curzon. He did not

want to press any of the incidents in the Foreign

Office departmental memorandum or raise any controversy

over them. But he had been impressed by representations

made to him by Mr. Stephens of the Hongkong and Shanghai

Bank against Sir Edward Stubbs; and in the present

state of China, and still more in view of the general

crisis that may arise any day, he thought it essential

to have in Hongkong a man of tact and judgment who

could