May 10, 1909.]
CHINA ASSOCIATION.
ANNUAL MEETING IN LONDON
SPEECH BY SIR C. DUDGEON.
MR. R. S. GUNDEY ON THE UNIVERSITY OF HONGKONG.
[From our own Correspondent.] The annual general meeting of the China Association was held on Tuesday (April 6th) at the offices of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company, Leadenhall St, London, when there were present:-Sir Charles Dudgeon, (Chairman) Sir Thomas Jackson. Sir Alfred Dent, Messrs, Byron Brenan M.G., R. S. Gundry, C.B., D. Warres Smith, T. Brown, R. C. Wilcox. P. Maclean, H. Keswick, F. Salinger, D. C. Rutherford, J. S. Mackintosh, G. B. Dodwell. J. H. Ross Taylor, H. Wilcockson, A. Zimmern, F. Cornes, G. Stewart, C. V. Hogg. A. M. Townsend, C. Raeburn, G. Jamieson C.M.G., T. H. Whitehead, H. G. Harwood, W. Harwood, C. V. Sale, T. M. Dermer, P. H. Browne, T. Lemont, H. C. Wilcox (Acting Secretary).
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
grounds which they failed to find convincing | (hear hear). All efforts to persuade Japan to remove her veto had failed. Japan would neither submit the question to arbitration nor reply to China's request for a definition of the limit west of the Liao river up to which China might develop the hinterland of Newchwang. Sir Charles also criticised Japan's claims to exercise all rights in the so-called "Zones" of the South Manchurian Railway.
Concerning the Huangpu Conservancy works Sir Charles said it was perpectly plain that the cost of the work had been wofully under estimat- ed and that a financial deadlock was threatened. The Shanghai Chamber of Commerce had addressed the Consular Body on the subject, and he hoped that the financial situation would be satisfactorily adjusted.
Coming to opium, Sir Charles regretted that the resolution profosed by the British delegates, expressing disappointment at China's inability or failure to produce trustworthy evidence, was withdrawn, for that seemed to him to be the crux of the situation. They had been told in the House of Commons that they must "act up to the standard set by the Chinese Government." Some of them smiled at that statement, knowing what they did of Chinese methods of obscuration, and oven Chinese officials themselves had not been slow is show-
on this question. The Opium Commission in Shanghai sat, in its foreign representation, in absolute good faith. They had yet to know the result, but if much had not been attained, it was because the Chinese seemed to evidence little more than Oriental interest in the exploitation of a situation fraught with undeniable possibilities. The Chinese had to make up their mind that no one would be. duped into making material sacrifices for the sake of sham reforms. (Hear hoar.)
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Regarding the vexed question of piracies of trade marks by certain unscrupulous mer- chants in Japan and Korea, it was gratifying to know that matters were assuming a more satisfactory position.
The CHAIRMAN proposed that the report and accounts be received and adopted. In doing so he said that it had been a year of peculiaring the absurdity of certain Chinese statistics interest in Far Eastern affairs, and the bulkiness of the report gave eridence of the many questions which had occupied the attention of the home and foreign Committees. The report opened with an allusion to the dramatic events in Peking last November. when death removed both the Emperor Kwang Hsu and the Empress Dowager Tsze Hsi-the virtual ruler of China during a period which covered the Far Eastern experience of all those present. The history of the Empress had yet to be written, but whatever the historical ap- preciation of her reign might be, there could be no doubt that her name would go down to posterity as one of the most remarkable and renowned of the world's female potentates. For many years the prediction had been that the death of the Empress Dowager would be the signal for great changes in the Empire, but they were yet too chose to the event to gauge the truth of these predictions. They had witnessed a seemingly peaceful succession to Kwang Hsu with apparent promise of a policy of progress and reform, but this pro- mise had been shaken by the sudden dismissal of Yuan Shih-kai. It seemed, however, that the new regime was determined upon the prosecution of a far-reaching policy of domestic reforms, and already one official had been dismiss ed for malversation of railway funds As regarded China's foreign relations, Sir Charles thought there was not much evidence of improvement in her traditional policy. China gave little but asked for much, and she was ready enough to give promises, and to take all she could from Western Powers. By playing off one set of financiers against another she had been peculiarly successful of late in obtaining terms of constantly diminishing security. A door of trado was opened 67 years ago, but the hinges creaked, the door had jammed, and could only be opened through the application of lubricating oils, which were not contemplated in the Treaties.
loans on
Sir Charles then passed to the Manchurian question and said it was surely putting a strain upon their credulity to ask them to believe that the Portsmouth Treaty of Peace represented a final settlement of the question. Were they to suppose that the Russian policy in Northern Asia, consistently pursued since the days of Yermack, was going to be abandoned by reason of temporary defect? Surely not, Russia had met with similar checks before, but her policy was never abandoned. The Treaty of Nert chinsk stopped her forward movement for 150 years, but she had since occupied the whole of the Amur region, and they saw the occupation of Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan in the closing years of the last century. The last check would. not produce a change in policy, evidence of which might not improbably be seen in their
time.
A question of particular interest in Manchuria was that of the proposed railway extension from Hsinmintum to Fakumen, the construction of which had been vetoed by the Japanese on
Japanese statesmen and Japanese Chambers of Commerce ap- peared to have seriously taken the matter in hand, warning their countrymen against the continuance of the flagrant dishonesties com- plained of, and though the Japanese Govern- ment was showing a somewhat unaccountable delay in concluding the Trade Marks Convention yet they might hope to see the matter satis- factorily set at rest before long. When this was completed then the negotiations with China on the question could be proceeded with. Sir Charles expressed the thanks of the Committee for the valuable assistance which had been given by H.M.'s Ambassador at Tokio in the matter of protecting British Trade Mark rights.
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criticism in the more comfortably situated centres of Shanghai and elsewhere. He per- sonally maintained that no ever attempted more in the direction of co-operative work with the Chinese than Mr. Little did. The reports dealt with this co-operative work as applied in Mr. Little's pet venture of developing the coal wealth of Szechuan. No more favourable terms of ex- ploitation could possibly have been given to the Chinese, and yet the result was sickening and disheartening opposition at every turn. The consequence was a broken heart to Mr. Little and the practicel abandonment of the enterprise. The enterprise of the London and China Syndicate in Anhwei was full of promise, and the result was the same-dogged obstruction and sickening failure-and yet by the Treaty of 1902 (Article IX) China solemnly undertook to encourage the introduction of foreign capital for mutual benefit in the exploitation of her mineral wealth. Referring in conclusion to the financial statement of the Association.
Sir Charles stated that the Currency decree of October 5th was welcomed as evidence that China was at last about to give effect to the obligations which she undertook under the second article of the Treaty of .902, but another six months had passed without apparent sign of anything further being done. The Committee thought that the correspondence published in the appendix would be of considerable illuminative interest, as showing the well-nigh hopeless financial chaos into which China had allowed her currency matters to drift. It might be safely predicted that unless China seriously took in hand the questions of her currency, of her foreign loans and of her finances generally, and that without delay, financial disaster stared her in the face. (Applause).
Sir Charles stated that the year began with a deficit of £27 and ended with a credit of £48, and their assets stood at £2,200, an increase of £100 as compared with the previous year (applause). He then formally moved the adop tion of the report.
Mr. R. S. GUNDRY seconded the proposition. He observed that they had listened with great interest to the clear and lucid review which the Chairman had given them of the leading incidents of the past year. He proposed to allude to two subjects on which the Chairman had not touched, namely their own School for Chinese and the proposed University for Hong- kong. The report spoke of the endowment of the former scheme as pending in the future, but it would be gratifying to them to know that through the munificence of certain mem- bers of the Association, what was then in the future, was now accomplished. The School was an accomplished fact, and he was sure, in a certain sense. that the success of the school might militate against the success of the Hongkong University, for they could not keep on putting their hands in their pockets however much they might be in sympathy with the object to be helped. There was a plethora of Chinese educational schemes before the public at the present moment. There was their own school; the very promising schemes of the University of Hongkong, thanks to the munificence of Mr. Mody to provide all the necessary buildings, and Lord William Cecil was advocating a Chinese Missionary University. The Chinese Emergency Committee-he con- fessed he had not yet fully recognised where the emergency came in-had persuaded the Lord Mayor to hold a meeting at the Mansion House for the purpose of inviting support for this western teaching scheme. It was all very well to say that they could all flourish together. Those who said that were for the most part not those who put their hands in their pockets. As a matter of fact the resources which could be drawn upon were limited, and these resources being limited there must be a certain amount of rivalry. He was certain that their whole-hearted sympathies would go out as members of that Association to the British Colony of Hongkong (applause.) expressed that view with the unqualified ap- proval of the Committee in a letter which was supported in the editorial columns of the Times two days later. He was sure they would as members of the Association generally endorse the attitude he then took up (applause).
In conclusion Sir Charles dealt with railways and mining, two questions illustrative of the Chinese policy of "giving too little and taking too much." They had lately seen the criticisms of the Peking correspondent of the Times regarding the Shanghai-Ningpo Railway and the British section of the Tientsin-Pukow line. China had violated the condition of her railway loan contracts, and another inst- ance of want of good faith might be adduced by the Canton-Hankow railway.
The question of Mining brought prominently to mind the personalty of their old friend Mr. Archibald Little, whose death all deeply deplored. Mr. Little's pioneering instincts led him into the remoter fields of British adventure in China. Methods were always open to criticism, and the methods adopted by Mr. Little in Szechuan had been the subject of much easy armchair
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Mr. Gundry then went on to say that the Chinese were neither paupers nor barbarians. They were not devoid of resources, nor of the knowledge how to organise educational insti- tutions, so why should they at home divert money from their own imperial needs to supple- ment Chinese schemes. He noticed that the Viceroy of Nanking was going to establish an engineering College in Shanghai; well, they wanted one in Hongkong. The same remarks applied to the Chinese University which was now viewed with less favour in exalted quarters in Peking. Another point the Emergency Com- mittee laid stress upon was the design of medical teaching, but the most important feature of medical teaching, as regarded education at any rate, was anatomy. How were they going to teach anatomy in a country where dissection was forbidden by public prejudice? How could they teach surgery effectively in the absence of