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Paraphrase telegram from the Governor of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Dated 9th August.
423
(Received Colonial Office 5.8 p.m.,
9th August,1926)
Priority. Secret. Canton negotiations.
Following message
dealing with question of recognition has been repeated to Peking No. 7 and is concurred in by Brenan and by all membera of Executive Council.
For the time being China has broken up. There is no Central Government and Washington Treaties are no longer applicable to the facts of the present position, since they presupposed a China united under a Central Government. It will be necessary sooner or later to face the facts as they exist.
There is urgent need for the framing of a new policy applicable to the fact that China has disintegrated and may not be unified again for a long time. My Executive Council and I strongly urge that H.M.G. should approach the Powers chiefly concerned namely Japan, France and the United States, with a view to the framing of such a policy. We are convinced that if Great Britain and these Powers were to speak with one voice at Canton and elsewhere in China and were to give recognition to authorities now actually exercising regional control there would speedily follow the suppression of the strikes, boycotts, brigandage and piracy which are afflicting the nationals of all four countries in China.. In the absence of such a policy we shall merely succeed in playing into the hands of the Bolsheviks who are out for the destruction of British trade and prestige and there is every prospect that things will go from bad to worse.
If it were decided to offer recognition to the Canton Government the offer would naturally be dependent on
the
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