CO129-508-4 Cases of attacks by pirates 6-11-1927 - 23-11-1928 — Page 43

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3. I was accompanied to the reception by Commander

M.L. Clarke, the Senior Naval Officer and we met there

General Teng Shih-cheng (

) the Chief of Police and

) in charge of the

Chief of Staff, Admiral Chan Chak (

Havy Department and Mr. Chu Chao-hsin, the Commissioner for

Foreign Affairs. Commander Clarke and I took the opportunity

of a long conversation with these officials when I handed them

the memorandum and tried to pin them down to some definite plan

of action in which British forces could co-operate. They

informed me verbally that they would not object to the co-

operation of British warships provided the nation of the latter

was confined to the sea and forces were not landed on Chinese

territory, but beyond promising that soldiers and ships would

immediately be sent to the spot, they would not give me any

definite information of their plans. They obviously did not

want to be committed to any scheme of co-operation with us. I

communicated the result of this interview to Hongkong in a

telegram of which a copy is enclosed.

4. On the following day a reply was received from

Hongkong stating that the Commodore would like further informa-

tion in order to co-operate effectively. I accordingly sent

Mr. Vice Consul Tuson once more to the Naval Headquarters to

try and extract something more definite. He was informed

that three gunboats the "Ping Nan," "Hai Pu" and "Kwong Kon"

had already been sent from Canton and more than a hundred

soldiers by land. No undertaking would be given about co-

oneration with the British forces. I then telegraphed to

Hongkong (copy enclosed) transmitting this reply and stating

that it was useless to expect any definite proposals from

Canton/