COPY.
Enclosure No. 12.
Private & Confidential.
THE ASIATIC PETROLEUM CO.,
152
Shanghai 17th January, 1927.
Subject: POLITICAL SITUATION AND BRITISH POLICY.
The Chairman,
British Chamber of Commerce,
SHANGHAI.
Dear Sir,
Je have been asked by Mr. Humphrys to inform you of the
contents of a cable he has sent direct to Sir Robert waley Cohen
in London; this cable (conveyed to us in a telegram dated the
15th, but only just received) reads as follows:-
"Situation as I see it is that while the whole Nationalist
Government consider it necessary as a matter of expediency
to employ Soviet method with incitation of mob passions through propaganda and Labour Unions to achieve their inmediate purpose, most of the responsible members (are?) imposed upon (and?) do not wish to push the method too far nor to destroy either British or Foreign Trade which they realise is an economic necessity for their urgently needed revenue. But there is a powerful minority section which is whole hog comunist and out for complete destruction of British Trade and Interests. The former section have
controlled mobs and restored order in concession during the past few days but are finding it increasingly difficult, especially because heads of propaganda party in main port and throughout the interior as well as Chief Labour Union Officials are recruited from the trained Communists and
work under the direct order of Soviet Russia. The latter definitely desired to force the British to fire on the Mob on the 3rd January to intensify disturbances here and propaganda in Shanghai and elsewhere. British opinion here is convinced that the policy adopted here by the British
Rear-Admiral
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