CO129-498-8 Canton situation- speeches made by members of the Canton Government- and visit of the Fraternity... 13-1-1926 - 13-1-1926 — Page 21

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

23M

restoration of the Customs and the abolition of the unequal

treaties. It is clear that this will benefit us all, and

we can have no doubt about it.

Now we come to a minor matter

the question of

resuming work. What the strikers fight for is freedom for our Chinese in Hongkong, of assembly, association, residence, speech and publication. This is for the interests of all

Chinese residents there, and not for the benefit of workmen

alone. Freedom of residence refers to habitation in

European buildings at the Peak there. As only rich men can enjoy such dwelling places, in reality it has nothing to do with the workmen. But the workmen have now endured hunger

and cold for several months, and have suffered much hardship

merely for the good of the rich class. This shows that they

have interested themselves in the welfare of every class of

their fellow-countrymen. In the Kin Kwok Fong Leuk (Scheme

for Rehabilitation of China) of Mr. Sun, there have been

clearly specified his policies for the development of

industries. Classification has been made of all branches

of industry, setting out which should be managed by the

Government, and which should by private individuals.

In our

movement to uphold farmers and workmen, we do not mean that we are going to oppress the merchants. We only mean that we

should raise the standard of the livelihood of the farmers

and workmen. All human beings are naturally entitled to

rights of existence, and we have no reason to say that

farmers and workmen are born to remain in slavery.

present farmers and workmen constitute 80 or 85% of our Chinese population, and why should we fail to give them

some help?

At

After all, if all the people of our country - farmers,

workmen, merchants, students and soldiers can combine

their efforts to overthrow Imperialism and to get the

unequal treaties cancelled, it will benefit all of us.

Not

only

Comments

Approved members can add comments, bookmarks, and private notes.

No comments yet.

Private Research Note

Private notes are available after approval.