CO129-571-1 Sino-Japanese War- shipping 10-1-1938 - 24-12-1938 — Page 159

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General's Secretary, but these did not reopen the river.

From October 1st until October 5th there were conversations

several times daily, regarding the release of the vessels

now shut in at Canton on which I thought best to concentrate

More sinico, vague promises were made and

as a first step.

as often broken.

During the same period, the Shipping

),

Companies in Hong Kong, who were necessarily without knowledge

of the background (see paragraph 3 above) were indignant and

suggested solutions in Hong Kong, Nanking and London which

bore little relation to realities. This did not assist

matters. On October 5th Rear Admiral Feng Cho Hsun (

the officer in charge of River Defences (who although an

Admiral in name is a translated soldier of last year's

vintage) informed Captain Cunninghame Graham that he hoped

to communicate a plan for the release of the ships on October

8th. On October 8th the plan was officially communicated,

and on October 9th, led by H.M.S. "Cicala", and largely thanks

to movement orders carefully arranged by Captain Cunninghame

Graham in consultation with the British Shipping Companies,

a flotilla of 17 ships, of which 11 were under the British

flag and 4 more under British charter, passed in single file

through the barrier without a hitch and arrived safely at

Hong Kong,

This ended the second phase of the blockade (see my

telegram No. 99 of October 9th).

9.

The third phase was to arrange the resumption of

British shipping. It proved inevitably the most difficult,

in view of the military mentality, and the background of

that mentality to which I referred in paragraph 3. In the

last paragraph of my despatch No. 137 of October 13th I

reported on proceedings to this end up to that date.

I then stated the problem was to reconcile the conflicting

factors of reasonable navigation on a paying basis and the

defence