CO129-569-11 Visit of Governor of Hong Kong to Canton 11-4-1938 - 15-9-1938 — Page 36

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to cw. Orde

anod. J.

وم

My dear Cowell,

DIEV

Mong rong.

Government House,

April 11th, 1938.

13,60 END

I am frequently being approached demi-

officially from Canton with a request that I should pay

a call on the Provincial Authorities of Kwangtung. The latest

suggestion has been that I should go there unofficially.

Hitherto, I have taken the line that it will

be better to wait for the termination of the present

hostilities before paying such a call, my reason being that,

presumably the Japanese would look on such action as 'one

over the odds' as I have no official business in China and

there is nothing to be gained by such pin-pricking, as it might be regarded.

As regards the suggestion of an unofficial

call, I have told Blunt, the Consul-General at Canton, that I do not think it would be convenable, and that I anticipate

that the same view would be taken in the Colonial Office:

apart from any other reason I should have to go by railway,

in which case I should need a 'safe-conduct'; and that might

be refused by the Japanese, with consequent "loss of face" on

my part.

I shall be glad to know if these views are

concurred with generally. If, on the contrary, it is considered

that I should go to Canton and pay an official visit before long,

I am quite willing to do so; in that case I should probably go

by gun-boat.

Yours sincerely,

[-Art-horthern

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