CO129-507-9 Chinese Telegraph Office- Hong Kong- transfer to Cantonese control 4-1-1928 - 20-7-1928 — Page 130

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Enclo. No. 4.

Enclo. No. 5.

Enclo. No. 6.

February. A copy of the letter addressed to Mr. Ch'en,

referred to therein, is enclosed.

3.

In the meantime the existing incumbent

Mr. Lau Cheuk-pan (#), who as I was officially

informed had been dismissed from office for embezzlement, and whose place Mr. Ch'ên was to take, had produced a telegram (copy enclosed) purporting to come from the

Ministry in Peking retaining him in office. Mr. Lau's

account of this message was that he had succeeded in

borrowing $2,000 with which he made a remittance to Peking

and that the Ministry, believing that further remittances

were in view, decided to hold its hand. I see no reason to

doubt the genuineness of the message nor the veracity of

the explanation. Mr. Lau's manoeuvre and its results are

entirely in keeping with Chinese methods of to-day

a little cash will buy anything and anybody. It may even be that the Peking authorities, knowing that Mr. Ch'en's mission had failed, reinstated Mr. Lau for the express

purpose of causing embarrassment to the Hong Kong Govern- ment. Mr. Ch'ên disclaimed all knowledge of this change of front by Peking; but he did admit that Peking had acquiesced in his proposal to abandon his mission, and

he left the Colony on the 7th instant, though not without a Parthian shot of protest, a copy of which is enclosed. I

do not propose to reply to this letter, but it is an

interesting testimony to the intolerable position in which

Hong Kong is placed by the fiction that there still exists at Peking a Central Government of China. Mr. Ch'ên warns me that my action will "adversely affect the good under-

standing and friendship existing between our governments"

i.e.

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