CO129-485 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1924 [8-12] — Page 494

J

TV SECRET.

472

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG. 31st December, 1924.

FO.

51915/24

Sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Secret despatch of November 11th with regard to the

shipment of arms to Canton by the S.S. "Hav".

2. I was unable to obtain any information bearing on the matter from outside sources and accordingly I took what seemed to be the only possible course and informed Mr. Barlow, the present Chief Manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, that you had requested information on the subject and asked him whether he cared to make any statement that I could place before you.

3, He replied by forwarding to me the enclosed memoran- dum which he had supplied to Sir Newton Stabb for communication

to the Foreign Office.

4. Mr. Barlow is mistaken in inferring that "the matter

had been discussed with the authorities here". Mr. Stephen had

certainly never discussed it with me and I cannot find that

anybody else had any knowledge of what was proposed. I do not

understand the observation in Mr. Stephen's letter of 10th

October, 1923 to the Consul General at Canton that he thought

that "the Hong Kong Goverment would preserve a benevolent

blindness to any measures likely to secure peace and good

order in Canton City" and I can only conjecture that what he

had in his mind was that, as he knew my views as to the

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S.AMERY, M.P.,

paramount

&c..

30..

&C..