CO129-497 - Public Offices - 1926 — Page 144

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(11.) The employees must obey the order of the Strikers' Committee. The committee has the right to order them to discontinue operations if necessary."

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175. Sir James Jamieson's comment on these demands was a more complete surrender of extraterritorial rights if accepted by those concerned it would be difficult to conceive. One American firm hitherto carrying on business on the French Concession of doubtful reputation has, 1 am credibly informed, already accepted

them.

176. On the 24th September at a big conference in Canton the following resolutions relating to navigation and the settlement of the strike were passed :-

(1) Passengers from Hong Kong will be allowed to come to Canton. (2.) Passengers from Canton for Hong Kong will not be allowed. (3.) Discharge of cargo from Hong Kong steamers is prohibited. (4.) Passengers to Canton, after landing, must be subject to search by the pickets. The following articles are liable to confiscation: (a) Arms and ammunition; (b) letters intending to break up the strike or the Nationalist Government; (c) Hong Kong newspapers; (d) British goods with luggage excepted.

(5.) No native boat is allowed to go alongside the steamers from Hong Kong.

Shameen Strikers' Conditions.

(1.) Chinese labourers on Shameen shall have full rights to convene meetings, &c. (2.) All former employees shall be reinstated.

(3.) Eight hours a day.

(4.) Only Chinese police be employed.

(5.) East and West Gates to be closed at 12 A. M.

(6.) Chinese to be allowed to walk and sit on the bund.

(7.) Intercourse be allowed between representatives of the labourers and the

foreign officials.

(8.) The British and French Municipal Council shall abrogate all ill-treatment

against Chinese.

Hong Kong Strikers' Conditions.

(1.) Chinese in Hong Kong shall have full rights to convene meetings, &c. (2.) Chinese in Hong Kong shall enjoy the same treatment as the foreigners.

Deportation and criminal laws on Chinese shall be abrogated.

(3.) Chinese shall have the right of voting and of being voted in the Legislative

Council.

(4.) Eight hours a day, favourable wages, abrogation of foreman system,

reformation of woman and child labour system, &c.

(5.) Reinstatement of former employees.

(6.

Issue of back pay.

(7) Release of those arrested during the strike.

be restored.

Freedom to those deported shall

(8.) Compensation of tenants who lost their belongings by auction by the Government or landlord on account of non-payment of rental during the strike

(9.) New rental regulations of the 1st July, 1925, shall be abrogated. Effective

decrease of 25 per cent, of rental.

(10.) Intercourse be allowed between the representatives of the labourers and the

foreign officials.

(11.) Restoration of rights of licence, certification, &c., granted to Chinese prior

to the strike.

(12.) Equal treatment to Chinese employees of steamers, factories, companies, &. 177. A further cause for anxiety arose towards the middle of October, when the consular body on Shameen were informed officially that mines had been laid round Tiger Island forts (sometimes called Bocca Tigris or Bogue Forts). River steamers plying between Hong Kong and Canton were also stopped by rifle fire.

178. Sir James Jamieson was of opinion that sufficient cause had now been given for a partial blockade of Canton as retaliation for such outrageous action ou the part of the de facto Canton Government which was tantamount to an act of war against His Majesty's Government. No action, however, was really possible by Tis Majesty's Government alone without the co-operation of the other critime Powers.

179. The fighting in Northern Kwangtung between Ch'en Ch'iung-ming, the anti-Red general, and Chiang Kai-shek, the Cantonese general, resulted in a victory for the latter, who captured Swatow early in November.

180. Meanwhile the unofficial conversations which had been started by a delega- tion of Chinese merchants from Hong Kong who had come to Canton with a view to paving the way

for a better understanding between the two Governments, had proved abortive owing to the attitude of the Strike Committee in Canton, who insisted on adhering to all their political demands, and of the Canton Government, who refused to negotiate with the Hong Kong Government except through the medium of the Strike Committee.

181. At the close of the year the position was about as unsatisfactory as it could be; at one moment the extreme Sino-Russian Communists were said to control the Government, at another hope was expressed that the anti-Reds might come into power; in the course of December the Hong Kong Government made a great effort to ease the tension, but a visit to Canton itself by Mr. Fletcher, the Colonial Secretary, was of no avail on account of the insistence of the strikers on their political demands. A further visit by another delegation of eight Chinese merchants from Hong Kong proved a complete failure for the same reason, and they were compelled to depart more or less ignominiously after having been publicly stigmatised as the

running-dogs of imperialism."

182. Of the various expedients suggested as a solution of the difficulties of the Canton situation, that of a policy of patience and conciliation seems for the time being to hold the field. It would appear that an isolated and forcible intervention in Chineses internal affairs on the part of His Majesty's Government at the present time would be liable to cause an immediate recrudescence of the violent anti-British demonstrations and boycotts which followed on the Shanghai incident of the 30th May and inevitably lead to a legacy of hate not only in the south, but throughout, the whole of China. It is, however, doubtful whether the use of armed force by His Majesty's Government to bring the Cantonese to reason and to exact compensation for the outrages committed by them against the British communities in Shameen and Swatow and the colony of Hong Kong would result in the establishment of improved relations between Canton and the Government of the colony, and whether the remedy might not prove worse than the disease by permanently diverting from Hong Kong and Canton a large volume of trade which has already been forced to take other channels by the continuance of the strike and the boycott.

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