CO129-518-1 Chinese Telegraph Office in Hong Kong 28-6-1929 - 3-1-1930 — Page 22

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33634/

51263/10123/1911

This view was communicated to the colonial Office and

no further steps were taken.

The dispute over the Hong Kong Office does not

appear to have come again to the notice of this

department until 1925 when the telegraph companies

commenced negotiations with the Chinese Government for

an extension of the agreements which were due to terminate

in 1930. The Government of Hong Kong in referring

to the negotiations stated that the presence of

the office in Hong Kong had been the source of incessant

trouble and requested that it might be made a condition

of approval of His Majesty's Government to any new

agreement that the Chinese Telegraph Office should be

removed to Chinese territory. The more recent difficulties

had arisen out of the Civil War in China. At its

commercement in 1916 the Imperial Government notified the

suspension of international telegraph correspondence with

the newly declared independent province of Kwangtung.

The suspension was not carried out in its entirety but

the trading facilities of Hong Kong were seriously

impaired and the relations of the Colony with the

Cantonese suffered by reason of the Hong Kong Office of

the Chinese Government being used as a centre of

espionage and political intrigues.

disturbances culminating in 1923 with the attempted

assassination of the Chinese official in charge of the

office. A suggestion made to the Chinese Government

through reking that during the continuance of hostilities

in China the office should be taken over by the Eastern

There were numerous

Extension.