CO129-500-3 Canton situation- governor's despatches 29-7-1927 - 1-9-1927 — Page 59

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which won certain credit with the merchants and the general public at Canton. At the same time Borodin again sent the Communists to disseminate pamphlets deliberately to frighten

the Cantonese, and thus the whole city of Canton was plunged

into a serious state of panic. To put it in another way, Borodin had aimed at prejudicing all we had taken in hand: At that time the leaders of the Yunnan and Kwongsai troops were Yeung Hi Man and Lau Chan Wan, and Comrade Liu Chung Hoi ruled the Province as Civil Governor. Comrade Liu

declined to take up the matter, and therefore it had to be

left to me. I was not at a loss how to proceed. Clearly a

Merchants' Corps of this kind should be dissolved.

I went

But my plan was not Borodin's. I said to our late President, "If you entrust this matter to me, I must insist on one small condition. It is that you will not listen to

what Borodin says." "I have not listened to him alone.' replied our President, "I have listened to you too." further and demanded that in this particular case he should listen only to me and in no respect listen to Borodin. "Why?" enquired the President. In reply, I said, "You mean that there would be no harm in taking any advice which appears practicable. But if you let one suggestion be made to you today, and another to-morrow, we shall finish by having no scheme at all. If you listen to him, the result must be

ruin.

Therefore I insist that you leave the matter entirely in my hands." "Very good" said the President. On that day Comrades Liu Chung Hoi and Tam Tso On (i.e. Tam Yin Hoi) were also present, and heard what we said to one another. At that time all the different bodies of troops made similar requests. They said the Merchants' Corps were dissatisfied maintaining that the arms seized belonged to them, but if the Government returned some portion of them they would have

nothing