CO129-507-9 Chinese Telegraph Office- Hong Kong- transfer to Cantonese control 4-1-1928 - 20-7-1928 — Page 68

COPY.

(F 2653/76/10).

Enclosure No. 10 in Mr. Brenan'a despatch No.51 of

April 16th, 1928.

No. 140.

68

H.B.M. Consulate General,

Canton.

April 13th, 1928.

sir,

With reference to my semi-official letter

of the 3rd April, I have the honour to enclose a copy

and translation of a letter from the Commissioner for

Foreign Affairs from which it will be seen that the Canton

Government declines to make any alteration in the existing

Chinese title of the Superintendent of the Chinese telegraph

office in Hongkong.

I much regret that I have been unable to induce

the Canton authorities to accept the version proposed by

Your Excellency, but the question is one of prestige

vis-a-vis the Northern Government, in which the National-

ists are evidently determined not to give way.

I can

only suggest, therefore, that Your Excellency should now

adopt the attitude agreed on at the conference at Government

House on the 10th April and leave the matter in statu quo,

You will then be in a strong position, for

Peking will have no ground for protest whilst its

nominee is left in possession, and if the Canton

Government does try to reopen the question, it can

either be referred to Your Excellency's offer of a

compromise, or it can be told that that offer, having

been rejected, has now lapsed, whichever may seem most

1

His Excellency

The Governor,

Hongkong.

expedient/