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unfortunate step may serve as a warning for the future; and I shall certainly use all my own influence to induce the Canton Government to accept British rather than Russian help hereafter. But there is no doubt that Borodin and his officers have established a strong claim to the gratitude of the present defacto Government of Canton and that it will not be easy to dislodge them. Until they are dislodged, they will be a constant menace to Hongkong and they may prejudice the permanency of any settlement now made.
(b) The proposed payment by employers to strikers is neither more nor less than a payment of blackmail, and such payment may be a positive encouragement to organised labour to proclaim another anti British strike and boycott whenever the labour funds are again needed. There is,moreover, the possibility
I would even say the probability that, after the present boycott and strike have been called off, there may remain at Canton the nucleus of a Labour Committee ready and willing to seize any pretext, however flimsy, to raise "easy money" from Hongkong.
(c) The present nominal Government of Canton has only been in power a few months; it has many Chinese enemies both in and outside the Province of Kuang-tủng, and the chance of its being attacked and overthrown by a hostile Chinese General during the course of the next year cannot definitely be ruled out. If the present Government of Canton were overthrown, then it is possible that no permanent advantage would accrue to this Colony from a settlement of the boycott in the manner now proposed.
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