CO129-501-8 General policy in China 30-11-1926 - 30-11-1926 — Page 138

32

Sir

place. Sir R. Macleay left Poking for England, his place being taken temporarily by Mr. O'Malley and substantively by Mr. (now Sir Miles) Lampson.

Francis Aglen returned to Peking and resumed his post

as Inspector General of Customs. Moreover, during November Comrade Eugene Ch'en and the other principl

members of the Canton Soviet, accompanied by Comrade

Jacob Borodin, their "high advisor", shifted the seat

of the Nationalist Revolutionary Government from Canton

to Hankow.

142

37. On the 13th November Mr. Brenan ascertained

from Comrade Ch'ên in private conversation that the

Canton Government would not agree to collection of the

new taxes by the Customs, although it would be glad if

a room in the Customs building and Customs documents for

calculation of tax could be placed at the disposal of

the Cantonese collectorate. This grant of such facilities

would, Mr. Brenan thought, reduce the necessity for

separate organization to a mere counter for receiving

money, and the excuse for the inspection corps would

disappear, though he doubted whether the corps itself

would be abolished. As this co-operation would not in-

volve actual collection of extra taxes by the Customs,

Mr. Brenan presumed that it could be allowed by the

Inspector General on his own authority without the consent

of the Powers. It would be convenient to trade; and co-

operation of this kind would be less dangerous to the

Customs than open rivalry. On the other hand, it would

mean practical recognition of the taxes without limiting

Canton's power to increase them at will or otherwise

safeguarding treaty principles (Canton telegram to Foreign

Office No. 56 of the 14th November). Sir R. Macleay

discussed