CO129-507-3 China- anti-piracy precautions 31-10-1927 - 25-10-1928 — Page 177

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if so well-informed a person as Mr. Stephen could have

thought what he did think, what must have been the general

public opinion in Hongkong and Canton? I think it must

have been that commercial circles in both cities, including

ioreigners, did support the Mercant Volunteer movement,

and that this movement would be favourable to Chen Chiung-

ming. So I cannot find that Commander Faure's statement

is so unwarrantable as Mr. Hallifax suggests. Nor does

it seem to me, on the face of it, improbable that the

Merchant Volunteers recruited their "soldiers" from

among the bandit and pirate classes, nor yet that these

"soldiers" were transported in launches flying the British

flag (especially after recent revelations regarding

smuggling under the British flag by launches owned by

purely Chinese firms).

It seems to me, therefore, that Commander Faure's

inaccuracies (and he himself has explained that he had

not time to give the memorandum the revision he would

have liked) have not been very lucidly exposed by his

critics, that (as they themselves admit) his main facts

are accurate, and that therefore it is illogical and

unfair to suggest (merely because his statement

is/