26
for an interview with Sir A. Chamberlain (see
No. 15 on file) which was prevented by the
latter's illness. Finally the Secretary of
State has himself circulated a memorandum to
the Cabinet when the question was previously
under consideration (in December 1926, see above)
Yet, knowing all this, the Foreign Office have
deliberately concealed the correspondence from
us until they could do so no longer. There can
be no doubt of the concealment being deliberate
because these telegrams-which should have been
sent officially - were not even sent to us
semi-officially in the usual daily batch which
is supposed to include all China telegrams except
the merest routine matters and does in fact
include telegrams on many subjects of no direct
interest to us whatever.
There have been other instances of
discourtesy by the Foreign Office on this
same subject.
(a) they have neglected previously to keep
us informed of developments; see No. 28 and note
on No. 22 in 30011/27.
(b) they sent officially, in reply to a
personal letter from the Secretary of State,
a memorandum by Lord Buxton containing offensive
remarks about Sir C. Clementi (the
worst
was "deleted" in such a manner that it could
still be read) See No. 7 on 30011/27.
The previous acts of discourtesy were
passed over but I feel that on this occasion
we
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