CO129-507-3 China- anti-piracy precautions 31-10-1927 - 25-10-1928 — Page 175

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support Chen Chiung-ming (not only unofficially but

officially too you will remember Sir R. Stubbs urging

that a loan should be made to him in 1922 and 1923). It

is clear that even now Chen shows signs of using Hongkong

as a base of intrigue, and I welcome the steps taken

to suppress his Secret Society, the Chi Kung T'ong. There

can be no doubt that Chen's party exaggerated the amount

of encouragement given him; and there can be no doubt

that the party opposed to him came to regard Hongkong

as Chen's ally and as their enemy, and that this fact

was one of the component parts in the situation that

faced us in 1925.

But this is all ancient history.

The new point

in Commander Faure's memorandum is his suggestion that

Chen Chiung-ming was in some way and to some degree connected

with the Bias Bay piracies. Some such idea has certainly

been present in the minds of the Canton authorities

when they have retorted to our representations that

the real organisers of the piracies were to be found

in Hongkong. There may be nothing in it; but it was this

aspect of Commander Faure's memorandum which seemed to

us/