CO129-525-7 Appointment of Chinese Consul at Hong Kong 14-9-1929 - 10-5-1930 — Page 17

17

Enclosure to Canton P/L despatch No. 136, dated 26th September, 1929.

Extrmet from "The China Truth" of 21st Septembe r, 1929.

CHINESE CONSUL FOR HONGKONG

According to the local Republican Daily New the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs proposes to establish a Chinese consulate in Hong

Kong and other foreign ports. The Ministry has sent about ten re-

presentatives to different foreign possessions near China for the

purpose of enquiring after the welfare of the Chinese residents

there. Special attention will be paid towards Hong Kong which has

■ Chinese population of some 500,000 people. The same paper ways

that the object of creating consulates in foreign colonies is to

protect the interest of the Chinese emigrants. While a Chinese

consul for Hong Kong should have been appointed when that colony

was first ceded to the British, this belated action will have the

full approval of the Chinese people especially those in Kwangtung

and the Chinese residents in Hongkong. The Chinese in Singapore,

Manila, Fenang, Batavia, Samos, and all the big cities of the world

are taken care of by their consuls, whereas no Chinese consul has

ever been appointed to Hongkong. We wonder if this is an oversight,

or perhaps that colony being so close to China the Chinese Govern-

ment takes for granted that everything is functioning normally

there. The people in Canton are specially interested in the propo-

sed appointment of a consul for Hong Kong, inasmuch as ninety-

nine per cent of the Chinese in that colony are natives of this

province. The duties of a consul is to protect the interest of his

people and to promote trade between his homeland and the port where

he is located. For these reasons, a Chinese conul in Hongkong is

not only desirable but very necessary. It is true that the Colonial

Government has a special official known as the Secretary for Chinese

Affairs to look after the welfare of the Chinese community, but his

duty is to settle domestic dispute, deport undesirable characters,

censor the vernacular press etc. Being appointed by the Governor,

the Secretary for Chinese Affairs is only rendering service to the

S