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imposition of the picket system must be resisted by the prompt application of force as indicated in my telegram of 12th September. It is quite likely that this new threat of an anti-British boycott originates in the cancellation of the anti-Japanese boycott consequent on the withdrawal
of the Japanese forces from Shantung. Picketing is a most profitable business and its opportunities are nowhere better appreciated than in Canton, where the so-called "Hong Kong Canton Strike Committee still exists. But the picket system is none the less dangerous because of its barefaced dishonesty. It will grow and spread widely, if given the least encouragement; it will likewise collapse rapidly at the first touch of real force. Its growth will choke British trade; its collapse will injure none except the scoundrels who will be thrown out of a job.
8.
Protests similar to those in connection with
the Doshing incident have been lodged with the Consul- General at Canton by the Kinistry for Foreign Affairs over our retaliation in Bias Bay for the piracy of the S.S. "Yatshing", my report on which will already be in your hands, and over reprisals carried out by the British gunboats
on the West River for the piracy of the S.S. "Kochow".
Enclo. No. 4. A copy of the report furnished to the Commodore-in-Charge
by the Senior Naval Officer, West River, on these reprisals is enclosed. In addition to manufacturing this flood of mendacious propaganda, the Canton Government has deemed it necessary to exclude as far as possible all veracious descriptions of these incidents. It has accordingly placed a ban on the importation into Kuang-tung of the Hong Kong
vernacular
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