Encl.No.1.
Encls.Nos. 2 & 3.
2.
21
bedrooms necessitated the remainder being quartered, as guests of the Colony, in the Hong Kong Hotel, the propinquity of which
rendered this arrangement a matter of no great inconvenience.
6.
A copy of the programme which had been compiled for
the visit is enclosed, and it will be seen from the annexed
newspaper cuttings that it went off without a hitch. The
synchronisation of the return visit of Cantonese business men as guests of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce (whose members had
paid a similar good-will visit to Canton before my arrival here last year) was a happy inspiration and I am most grateful to the
Chairman of the Chamber, the Honourable Mr. S.H. Dodwell, for the
cooperation and organisation which made it possible.
7.
I did not myself attend any of the unofficial
functions on 5th November, in order that the Chairman and Mayor
might occupy the highest places of honour. I was however
enabled personally to echo the sentiments of the day by welcoming the first regular boat of the China National Aviation Corporation at Kai Tak Aerodrome. A newspaper account of the event is the
It omits however to mention
Encl.No.4 fourth enclosure to this despatch.
that I was confronted, without any warning, with the necessity of posing and speaking for a Chinese "Talkie News" film which, I understand, is already being exhibited. I confined my speech to the statements that it had been my privilege to speed the first Imperial Airways plane from Singapore and to greet the first one here, that today I was welcoming another friend of the air and hoped to greet yet another in a few weeks time (the first regular American Clipper), and that I prayed that aviation, as it brought the nations nearer together in time and space, might bring them also nearer together in heart.
8.
The programme left little time for political
conversation but in the early morning of the second day the Chairman and the Mayor requested, through Mr. Phillips, an
opportunity for a short talk which I gladly gave them. Mr.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.