CO129-501-8 General policy in China 30-11-1926 - 30-11-1926 — Page 107

SECRET.

Copies to:

CE

4APR 1927

5

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

Peking.No. 8.

Tokyo.

Shanghai.

HONGKONG. 27th February, 1927.

Canton.No. 85.

Sir,

Disastrous events, culminating in the dismissal of Sir Francis Aglen, Inspector General

of Chinese Maritime Customs and the present

desperately dangerous situation of the fine service

of which he was the head, have followed upon the decision of His Majesty's Government in September last to acquiesce tacitly in the Cantonese "consumption and production taxes". It, therefore, appears to be desirable for purposes of record and future guidance to set out exactly what has occurred.

2. I take as my starting point the end of August, 1926. The local position at that time was as follows. Hong Kong had for more than a year successfully withstood a boycott contrived by the

so-called Canton Strike Committee under Bolshevik

influence with the avowed object of again convert- ing this Colony into the "barren rock", which was

all that China had made of it before the British

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S. AMERY, M.P..

&c.,

&c.,

&c.

occupation.