84.
"Whatever may
be the immediate course of events in China, it is certain that the torch lit by the Chinese Nationalist movement shall never be extinguished, and it must therefore be recognised as an enduring reality in the internal and international politics of this country. In these circumstances what should be the attitude of a country like Eng- land vis-à-vis this New China. There are people who insist that what England has, England must hold in China at all costs. This is what may be called the die-hard posture; and the past and all vital experience shew that it makes for resistance to change, for friction and strife and ultimately for war. And war, it is admitted, is never a real solution in modern conditions..
"Opposed to this attitude, which is rooted in a past of dead and dying conditions, is the conception of a changing China with new emerging classes of political workers who are conscious of the inherent strength and incalculable possibilities of Chinese resources and Chinese man-power under effective organisation. Such a conception demands, as a prac- tical corollary on the part of friendly Powers, a new view of the Chinese background and a new policy to establish Sino-alien relations, not on the old historic basis of treating China as a war-defeated nation of the period of 1842 but on the principle of equality which to-day underlies the relations of the smallest and the greatest members of the world-system of in- dependent states and sovereignties.
"We believe that this statement of what is called the Chinese question is not in fun- damental opposition to the real interests of any genuinely trading power in China. And, therefore, if the British are here genuinely to trade-solely to sell their goods and to buy our goods as they do when they go to other independent states-Nationalist China, and the Nationalist Government as its instrument of power and achievement, need not neces- sarily be a danger to British nationals in this country.
"If this view of the matter be sound, then mere considerations of prestige and what is known as 'face' ought not to be allowed to bar the road to a practical settlement of what is, in truth, one of the practical questions ofttimes posed by the ironic spirit in hist- ory to search out man's patience, his goodwill and his good sense.
After the transaction of some formal business, the negotiations were adjourned to Friday at 10.30 a.m. when Mr. Eugene Chen will state the Chinese case.
No. 2.
SECOND JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ
RELATING TO THE
MEETING OF FRIDAY, THE 16TH Joy, 1926.
The following communiqué is jointly issued by the British and Chinese delegations who are negotiating a settlement of Chinese-British disputes in the Liang-Kuang.
The Conference resumed its sittings to-day at 10.30 a.m. when the Chinese De- legation stated their views on the origin of the anti-British boycott. They refrained from formulating any conditions of settlement pending a reply to their statement. ference then adjourned till Monday, July 19th.
The Con-