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475
„EMORA
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
Hong Kong, 27th December, 1924.
BE "HAY" AFMS SHIP-
I would mention as a preliminary that I was at home on leave whan this business was initiated, in the Autum of 1923, and the late Mr.A.G.Stephen, then Chief Manager of the Bank, personally dealt with it until his departure for England on leave in "ay 1924. To a very great extent my information on the subject is derived from conversations I had with him.
Mr.Stephen gave me to understand that his acquiescence in arranging the finance of the business was due to his conviction that the Merchant Volunteers Organisation was, as its past records sho, the principal factor in the maintenance of law & order in Canton, as protector of the Chinese trading community from the illegal exactions of the mercenary Chinerc troops with which the City swarmed, so anything that would add to its efficiency was to the interests of the whole peaceful population & the benefit of trade generally.
Mr.Stephen, understanding that the project had the cognisance à approval of Dr.Sun himself & the Canton Government, was satisfied that everything was quite reguler as far as the Centon Government & the Chinese Maritime Customs, Canton, were concerned, this belief is borne out by his letter, dated 10th October 1923, to Sir James Jamefson,K.C.U.G. His reference in the same letter to the Hong Kong Government, leads me to infer that the metter had been discussed
with the Authorities here. At any rate I was assured by Mr.Stephen just before he left here in May, that all the Authorities immediately concerned had been informed & everything was in order.
The Bank's comection with the shipment of Arms &c, was
confined to making arrangements for the negociation by our Hamburg Office of the documentary bills drew by Sander Wieler & Co., Hemburg, on their Canton House, through whom our Canton Compradore, Chan Lim Pak, in his capacity as Comandent of the Merchant Volunteers,
ordered
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