93
―
No. 6.
STATEMENT
MADE BY THE
CHINESE DELEGATION
AT THE
MEETING OF WEDNESDAY, THE 21ST JULY, 1926.
As trustees of power on behalf of the Chinese people in the Liang-Kuang, the Nationalist Government sets the utmost value on publicity both as a means of public infor mation and of mass education and discipline. The beneficiaries must know if we, 'as trustees, are to serve and not merely to dominate and exploit them. Is is for this large reason of policy that the Chinese Delegation cannot share the objection of the British Delegation to the immediate publication of statements embodying final, and not purely tentative, views on a question of such comm inding public interest as the anti-British Boy- cott. There is also a specific reason. For more than a year the British press and publicists have exacerbated the public opinion of the world adversely to Canton which has been consistently mis-represented as a centre of senseless hostility and agitation against the British. It must surely serve the interests not only of historical truth but of this conference if fiction is replaced by fact, and public opinion is rightly informed as to the true Chinese reasons for the existing anti-British trouble in this territory. We. at any rate, believe in open diplomacy as a necessity of modern government and in publicity generally as the foe of the idols of Occidental prestige and Oriental "face" than which there are no greater obstacles in the transaction of international affairs in the Far East.
It is clearly not within the scope of this Conference to review the Shanghai shooting on May 30 in the sense of an immediate cause of the anti-British boycott in the Liang- Kuang. Reference was made to it in the Chinese statement as but one of the massive features of the "causal background' out of which sprang the tragedy off the Shameen on June 23. And it is strictly in this sense that we have to traverse the version of the incident set forth in the British statement and, referring to the so-called vindication of Inspector Evanson by the Shanghai Judicial Enquiry, to emphasize the refusal, of the Chinese people as a whole to have anything to do with the investigation. We agree that "previous ex- perience" was utilised in dealing with the anniversary crowd of May 30 at Shanghai, which conclusively proved that a Chinese crowd can be dispersed without invoking the application of the doctrine of the preventive measure. As regards what happened at Hankow the British statement is incomplete without a reference to the double fact that the Chinese crowd was unarmed save as to sticks and poles and that the British forces included British marines armed with quick-firing machine-guns.
We have stated and we repeat that the anti-British boycott has been the immediate and direct outcome of the shooting off the Shameen on June 23. This is the causa causans. If the boycott is to be ended, its cause must be dealt with. But while a con- sideration of this cause involves the question of responsibility as a vital issue, it is im- possible to accept seriously as evidence on the point the allegation that "it was definitely stated in Chinese circles in Canton and Hongkong on June 23rd that an attack was to be made on Shameen on the following day, and prominent Chinese actual- ly took refuge in Hongkong and made other dispositions to meet such an eventuality.' This presumably, is a repetition of part of the then British Consul General's disputable story of the events preceding the actual shooting on June 28. The baseless reports in "Chinese circles" and "prominent Chinese" (wealthy and therefore unduly nervous) running to Hongkong for refuge should be accepted as evidence of a plan of "attack on Shameen" is rather a sad commentary on human credibility. But this Shameen gullibility also testifies to the existence of a state and condition of the official mind on June 23 which explains why the events of the day marched to their tragic ending. To the then British Consul-General, an attack on the Shameen was an article of faith and, naturally he detected the diabolic intention in most things that came within his range of vision during the fateful hours immediately preceding the enactment of the tragedy.