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The primary object of Mr. Smith's mission was of course to certain whether the Indians in China and the Far East were being contaminated by Bolshevik influence. On reaching Hong Kong he was told that he hadcome on a wild goose chase, and so it proved.
The Indians abroad are out for money and while not particularly loyal they would not be likely, without very substantial inducement, to join seriously in an agitation which if successful would only result in depriving them of their means of livelihood. Moreover the Indians in China are mostly Sikhs and quite unsuitable for use as propagandists. (Mr. Smith describes the Sikhs in India as "ignorant, stupid, pig-headed, quarrelsome, and usually addicted to liquor" and it takes more than emigration to make the leopard change its spots). Finally, Russia has her hands too full with the Chinese to trouble about making expensive experiments with Indians.
I attach a note (marked "A") showing those passages in the reports which are of interest to us.
I am afraid that as a whole the reports are hasty and ill-arranged and contain little that is new, But Mr. Smith does render one valuable service from our point of view in that he lays particular stress on the inadequacy of the existing intelligence service at Canton and Hong Kong.
long There has been a desire in service quarters for
F improving intelligence at Hong Kong and I annex a summary of the correspondence on this subject (marked "B"). It will be seen that it was at one time proposed that a Bureau similar to that at Singapore should be established at Hong Kong. Sir E. Stubbs, however, did not take kindly to the proposal and felt that Hong Kong
could
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