CO129-559-13 Sir A. Caldecott- visit to Canton 13-9-1936 - 26-11-1936 — Page 49

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the need for understanding and co-operation between Canton and Hong Kong, but nothing more. In the case of the Generalissimo it was however otherwise, and the main purpose of this despatch is to reproduce the gist of what he said. There were two

distinct conversations between us, one at Whampoa on 17th

September and one at the Consulate dinner on 18th September. I will deal with each separately, but it is convenient to mention here that on the morning of the 18th September (i.e. in the interval between our two conversations) Marshal Li

Tsung-jen, who had arrived from Kuangsi the previous afternoon,

was received by the Generalissimo a meeting which set the final seal on the reconciliation of Kuangsi to Nanking. I did not however myself meet Marshal Li Tsung-jen.

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3. The talk at Whampoa was not tete-a-tete; the circle, seated in a garden overlooking the river and facing the sunset, included (beside the Generalissimo and myself) Madame Chiang Kai Shek, who interpreted, the Consul-General, my wife,

Mr. W.H. Donald (the Generalissimo's "chief unofficial adviser") and Colonel Huang, head of the moral uplift movement in the Chinese army but at the moment acting as Aide de Camp and Private Secretary to Madame Chiang Kai Shek. The Generalissimo began by asking what I had to say and I replied that I deeply appreciated the warmth of our welcome and the opportunity for making personal contact, because in

matters of commerce and of border administration Canton and

Hong Kong inevitably had many problems and interests in common, which would be best solved and served by mutual understanding and co-operation. I mentioned the visit to Canton, on the

previous day, of the Chairman and Secretary of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce and hoped that the business heads of Canton would soon pay a good-will visit to Hong Kong, where we hoped to return the hospitality extended to our business men by Canton last year when they came up on a similar mission.

mentioned that Sir Frederick Maze had informally enquired

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