CO129-492 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1925 [12] - 1926 [1-5] — Page 316

COPY.

MEMORANDUM OF A CONVERSATION WITH

MR. SUN FO

AT

GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

MUNGKUNG

Mr. Sun Fo called to see me on 29th March at 3 p.m.

309

He said that he had received in Shanghai a very urgent telegram from Mr. C.C.Mu asking him to return at once

to Canton. He arrived in Hongkong this morning and

leaves for Canton tomorrow morning. He will then, he

said, resume his position as Minister of Reconstruction. He told me that General Cheung Kai-shek is the power

behind the Canton Government; that none of the

members of the Canton Government are Communists.

neither is General Cheung Kai-shek a Communist; that

the Russians at Canton, being dissatisfied with the want of progress towards Communism in the province, plotted with the Strike Committee to assassinate General Cheung Kai-shek, overthrow the Canton Government,

and establish in its stead a Communist Government:

and that General Cheung Kai-shek, hearing of this plot, defeated it. Ho understands that Mr. Tong Tsing-wai is still nominal head of the Government

at Canton, but that he is too sick to carry on. 1

asked him point blank whether he was likely himself to succeed Mr. Wong Tsing-wai as Chairman of the

Canton Council of Government. He replied that he

could not say, but that he would certainly again

take office in the Canton Government, whoever might

be chairman. He said that he was entirely opposed to the policy of utilising Russian advisers in Kuang-tung, and was glad that they were now being sent away. He also said that he had always been opposed

to