493
8.
Two further lines of action have been discussed in Foreign Office telegram to Peking No. 35, and in the replies of His Majesty's Minister, and of His Majesty's Consul-General, Canton, viz. (1) assistance to an anti- communist leader and (2) conciliation. To intervene in the internal affairs of China, by supporting one faction against another, would constitute a reversal of the policy consistently followed until now, and would probably entail. the graveat consequences: it would moreover be in direct contradiction with the considered opinion of His Majesty's Government's advisers in China, quite apart from this
objection there seen at present, to be no element in Kwantung or outside it, which we could at this juncture
support with any prospect of attaining the object in view.
As to conciliation, it has now become evident
that there is little to be gained by further efforts in
this direction at present, so long as the Government at
Canton remains under the combined influences of the Russian
extremists and the Strike Committee. Sir J. Jamieson's
9.
telegrams show pretty clearly that conciliation has practically
no chance of success as things are at present.
10.
Thus, while fully realising the grave difficulty
and loss to which the colony of Hongkong has been and is
being exposed the conclusion seems inevitable that there is
no possible alternative to a policy of patience and moderation
as announced in the House of Commons in reply to Mr. Looker
on February 10th,
11.
With reference to the concluding sentence of
your letter under reference, Sir Austen Chamberlain fully
agrees that the Governor of Hongkong and Mr. Fletcher have shown
both tact and discretion in most difficult circumstances,
and/
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