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paper, for any settlement short of complete suppression of the Self Government Society is not at all unlikely to lead to a secret boycott in retaliation for the share we would be
and credited with in fighting them through our Government, this would be much more pernicious than the and difficult to contend against than the present openly declared policy they have adopted. If however the British Government on your representation and taking into consideration all the facts, which prove conclusively the injustice and illegality of the Self Government Society's action against us, would instruct us not to come to a settlement & promise that we should be indemnified for all losses by someone, there is, I can assure you, no question of our willingness to fight the
In my opinion
a clearly announced ultimatum by the British to the Chinese Government would bring things to a head promptly if they were told that we had been ordered not to come to a settlement and that the losses we may suffer through the action of the Self Government Society will have to be paid by China. However repugnant it may be to advocate severe measures it will undoubtedly prove the more merciful way in the end for the Chinese Government to put terror into the hearts of the leaders of Self Government Societies both in
If not done while these Self Canton and elsewhere in China. Government Societies are in their infancy the Chinese Government will rue the day of their supineness, for every success these organizations meet with will only encourage them to aim for greater and still greater power, until the position becomes, it can well be imagined, impossible and unbearable, leading to foreign pressure on the Chinese Government to suppress the incubus, and this may well end
in a