CO129-492 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1925 [12] - 1926 [1-5] — Page 110

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and whom we do not wish to see here again, and it is advised by Russian Bolshevista. It is impossible for the Hongkong Government to negotiate with a body such as that. The "loss of face", were such negotiations entered upon, would not only imperil the future good government of this Colony but, if the anti-British boycott in Kuang-tung were to end in the humiliation of Hongkong or in any manner that could be proclaimed as a success by the Canton Government, by the Canton Strike Committee or by Russian Bolshevists in Kuang-tung, e.g. in payment of blackmail as strike pay and in reinstate- ment of strikers or compensation for loss of employ- ment, than in our opinion the effect upon British interesta in Shanghai would be very detrimental and there would be a direct incitement to renewed anti-British agitation at that port and in other parts of China.

14.

The Foreign Office telegram inquires what are the real or proposed grievances of Canton and says that, if genuine, they must be met. Generally speaking these grievances may be said to

include everything comprised in the phrase

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"unequal treaties", which is now a parrot-cry in China. But the specific grievances are set out by the Canton Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in a press communiqué of which I enclosed a copy in my secret despatch of the 28th January. He wrote:- "The strike was instituted by Hongkong workers, not for economic reasons, but as a protest against the British Government, primarily for the shooting which took place in Shanghai on May 30th last and subsequently for the shooting which took place in

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120; not forented

Canton