This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
Printed for the Committee of Imperial Defence. January 1927.
SECRET.
762-B.
(Also Papers Nos. C.O.S. 62 and C.P. 16 (27).)
COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.
175
Copy No.
22
CANTON.
DEFENCE OF SHAMEEN.
(Previous C.I.D. Papers Nos. 617–B, 677–B, 681-B, 722-B, 727-B, 750-B, 756–B, 759-B, and 761-B.)
Report by the Chiefs of Staff.
WE held a meeting this morning to re-examine the situation at Canton in accordance with the following conclusion of the Cabinet at their Meeting held on the 17th January, 1927 (Cabinet 2 (27)):—
(1.) That the above decisions in regard to our general policy and the defence of Shanghai involved a change in the political assumptions on which the Chiefs of Staff Committee had been ordered to make their recent report on the defence of Shameen, and that the Committee of Chiefs of Staff should reassemble on the following day to re-examine the question of the defence of Shameen on the assumption that Shanghai was to be held and that His Majesty's Government were no longer committed to the policy of avoiding hostilities with the military forces at Canton in all circumstances. The Chiefs of Staff were asked to make recommendations for revised instructions to the British Consul- General at Canton, and the Naval and Military authorities at Hong Kong.'
2. Sir Gilbert Grindle, of the Colonial Office, and Mr. Mounsey, of the Foreign Office, were present at our meeting, at which we also had the advantage of the advice. of Rear-Admiral Stirling, late Commodore at Hong Kong, who only returned to England a few days ago.
3. In our previous report (Paper No. C.O.S. 60, also C.I.D. Paper No. 759-B and C.P. 8 (27)), we assumed that the policy of His Majesty's Government was to avoid any action which might precipitate hostilities with the Chinese military forces. We therefore recommended that while concessions should be protected up to the point where further resistance would inevitably result in open hostilities with Chinese troops, evacuation should take place in order to avoid such an eventuality. We also, for the same reason, considered that the action proposed by the Acting Consul- General, Canton, to threaten a blockade, and the bombing of important objectives at that place, should not be authorised.
On the new assumption that His Majesty's Government are no longer committed to a policy of avoiding hostilities with the military forces of Canton in all circum- stances the situation requires re-examination,
General Description.
SHAMEEN.
4. Shameen, the foreign concession of Canton, is on the point westward and above the City, southward of the western suburb and facing Macao Fort Passage or Back Reach. Its frontage is of irregular oval form, 2,850 feet long; its extreme breadth is 950 feet, and it is separated from the mainland by a canal 100 feet wide, faced with masonry, crossed by two stone bridges, one leading to the British, the other to the French concession, and having a stone embankment on the river side.
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