CO129-493 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1926 [6-8] — Page 510

NO SECRET.

Copies to:

507

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Canton No. 178

Peking No. 21

Swatow

Sir,

TANA GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

CON 07.969 August, 1926.

21 SEP 1926

Mr. J. F. Brenan, His Majesty's Consul- General at Canton, has furnished me with a copy of his despatch to the Foreign Office No. 69 of the 16th August recommending reprisals against strike- pickets, who are in effect a band of organized pirates and brigands, and who alone benefit by the continuance of the boycott.

2.

At a conference which I held at Government House, Hongkong, on the 9th August, attended by Major-General Luard, Rear Admiral Stirling, Mr. Brenan, Mr. Southern, Commander J. U. P. Fitzgerald, Senior Naval Officer of the West River, and Kajor Bennett, General Staff Officer, China Command, it was unanimously agreed that the boycott is likely to continue indefinite- ly with increasing damage to British trade and prestige, unless action more drastic than hitherto is taken against the strike pickets; and it was arranged that Commander Fitzgerald and Kajor Bennett should proceed to Canton and investigate on the spot the possibilities of more drastic action. The report of Cormander Fitzgerald, dated the 13th August, is enclosed in

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

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

Mr.

&C..

&C.,

&c.

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