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found in this. First of all, we almost all of us agree on the question of sentiment. (Applause) Upon that I shall dwell later, because it is, of necessity, an important part of our case. Secondly, we were told by my hon. friend, the Hon. fr. Lau Chu Pak-and this was the sum and substance of his argu- ment, 69 far as I understand it, for China or for the Chinese subjects here that the time is inopportune. And, lastly, we have been told that it is impracticalile, and that we bave not dealt fully with the economic reasons which are inevitably bound up with it, Now, gentlemen, I propose briefly, and as far as lies in my humble power, to deal with those three points of view before putting this resolution. I said in the Chamber that you cannot avoid the question of sentiment in viewing the aftermath of this war, and there I feel that I am upon certain and in controvertible ground. (Applause.) It is not in the name of things for those of us who have already been touched by the war, by personal loss or the loss of relatives, und those who will be so lonelied before the end of the war, to forget it for many years to come. (Applause.) Neither can we forget the manner in which some of them died-the atrocities which brought their end, the agonising death-sruggle through gassing, the wholesale murder by the sinking of un- armed and defenceless ships, the hurling of shells through Zeppelin rails upon the un- defended const and the interior towns of Eugh where women and children were Shattered mercilessly, the murder of Edith Cavell, and the assassination of Captain Frynt, which the men of the mercantile Jarine are not likely to forget for many years to come. And, dark you, if we do not support this resolution we are practically telling these men that we are going to wel- come back with open arms the murders of their comrades in the mercantile marine. plause.) There are the Belgian atrocities, which occurred in the opening events of this war, right down to the last and must hor- rible of all-the sinking of hospital ships with defenceless and mained creatures on board going to n place of refuge. These are horrors which cannot be forgotten for many years to come. (Hear, hear) I want to try and prove to you that this German charac teristic of brutality is so interwoven by edation in the German people that you will not endiente it, even though they are alefcated, for many years to come. Let me quote to you words in support of this, which were uttered not many weeks ago and within the confines of this building by an eminent American professor who is well qualified to speak as a student of international history. These are the words he uttered --Speaking fo the arguments of Frederick the Great,
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| designed for the political instruction of the Hohenzollern dynasty, he said:-"Here we have the beginnings of that which has led to all that has happened since." I quote it to
you.
"If a ruler is obliged to sacrifice his own person for the welfare of his subjects, he is all the more obliged to sacrifice treaty en- gagements, the continuance of which would be harmful to his country. Is it better that a nation should perish, or that a Sovereign should break his treaty !
"Do not be ashamed of making interested alliances from which you yourself can derive the whole advantage. Do not make the foolish mistake of not breaking then when you believe your interests require it.
"When he is about to conclude a treaty with some foreign Power, if a Sovereign remembers he is & Christian, he is lost.
"These words represented the sowing. A century and a half later Nietzsche wove the gospel of force into a sort of system, this doutrine being the doctrine of the super man and the inalienable right of the giant to act as a giant; of the strong to dominate the weak; of the powerful to overwhelm and trample upon the powerless. Then came the great historian, von Treitschke, breathing the philosophy of force into the very soul of Germany "Why talk of founding colonies he said. "Let us take Holland, then we shall have thera ready-made.' Then came Bern frank expounder of the same philosophy hardi, soldier and military strategist, and a His book, Germany in the Next War, pre- sented, in all its ugly brutality, the philoso Anconia; she many explain the Gulf Light, phy of force. Germany may explain the the Petrolite, the Communiaw and the Persia, the Susser and the Yasaka Maru. She may indemnify without apologizing. She may apologize without indemnifying the marvellous richness of the German tongue will never enable her to justify her presence in Belgium, or those tiny corpses how forever entombed in the iron coffin of the Lusitania. For this generation, the word Kultur, like Pompey's statue, drips with blood." (Applause.
But even
Now, gentlemen, that spirit has been so breathed into the very soul of the people, as it has been explained there, that it part and parcel of their national attitude of ming and I say that for many years to come it will not be eradicated. It was shown most clearly when the Lusitania was sunk. A public school holiday was given throughout Germany, at which the Hymn of Hate, among other things, was sung. This is one of the verses of the Hymn of Hate:---
You will we hate with a lasting hate. We will never forgo our hate. Hate by water, and hate by land. Hate of the head and hate of the hand. Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown. Hate of seventy millions choking down; We love as one, we hate as one, We have one foe, and one alone-
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ENGLAND!" Gentlemen, whatever may happen as the result of this war-and we believe we are about to enter the beginning of the final stage of the struggle, I do not say victory is in sight, but the beginning of the end is a result of this war, approaching it, as Germany is brought to her knees and the Prussian spirit is crashed fer ever, 1 pledge my word to you that it will be remembered by the German people for all time that it was England who stopped them getting into Paris. Yet you are asked to admit these people within the bounds of the Colony, remembering that this hate is there and that it will not be forgotten by them, any more than by us, for many years to come. (Ap- plause.) I shall probably be told in the papera to-morrow that this is a policy of retaliation, and that it cannot be defended upon any Christian ground whatsoever. I have no hesitation in saying that it is not a policy of retaliation; it is just retribution. Loud applause.) So much, gentlemen, for the question of sentiment, which cannot be excluded from this argument, say what you will. In reply to the argument that the time is inopportune-which, after all, is the policy of wait and see" which wrecked the Asquith War Cabinet-I contend that un- preparedness and inefficiency brought us within deadly peril of defeat, and blindly to shut our eyes to the future and say we can not now decide questions which affect the vast war issues is to admit practically the same fault which has been charged against Great Britain over and over again by her very foes. (Applause.) And I say it is here and now, before the war comes to a definite issue this Colony, jointly with other Colonies which have already raised their voices, should declare in no uncertain manner that, if it be in the Empire's interests, we will not have the Germans back. (Applause.) I have said clearly that we do not seek to dictate-nor do we to the Imperial authorities. All this meeting seeks to do, and all that I have striven to do up to now, is that the voice of this Colony might be represented at the debate which must inevitably take place as to the post-war policy of the Allies. (Ap- plause.) It would be presumption and folly to say that this Colony alone should exclude Germans. If it were decided that, for the benefit of the Empire as a whole, they should
be allowed to re-enter the Colonies and our great possessions. Hongkong wouki not be backward in admitting them if told to do so in the interests of the Empire, though wer certainly would not welcome them. (Ap- plause.) Now, gentlemen, I come to the question which, after all, is the most important of all. 1 have been charged in anonymous let- ters and elsewhere with not dealing fully with the question of the practicability, or im- practicability. of this suggestion. Tcontend, with the Hon. Anton, that it is not merely a question of pounds, shillings and pence, and we owe it to those who are fighting that we should be prepared to make sacrifices, if necessary, both in recognition of what they have done for us, and because, ultimately, we believe, it will be for the national welfare. (Applause.) But I contend, also, that it would be directly to the benefit of the Colony that we should exclude Germans from re- entry into our port for a period of years. (Applause.) Gentlemen, at the outbreak of war the liquidations proved that there was no less than 10,000,000 dollars worth of goods, to say the very least, revolving in credit, which had passed out of the control of the merchant-in some cases remaining still in Hongkong, though in the hands of the Chinese dealer; and, in other cases, already passed up country-and these were all out on credit, One of the and had not been paid for, greatest difficulties the liquidators had to deal with was to obtain the money due for these goods, which had been delivered on credit terms, and, in some cases, on very long credit terms. Now I contend that this 10,000,- 000 dollars worth of trade was very largely over trading, and therefore pasound trading, and the proof of that is that this Colony has been suffering from it for nearly two and a half years and is only just beginning to recover from it. And, at the risk of wearying you, I want to argue this point a little more definitely, because the papers were not clear in their statements with regard to the Chamber of Commerce meeting at which I dwelt upon this very point. uncommon thing for a Lancashire traveller, representing a Lancashire manufacturer or Manchester middleman, to come to this Colony during periods of intense trade depression, when the merchants were abso- lutely unable to do any trade whatsoever, because business was practically stagnant, and for us to hear of very large orders being placed with the travellers who visited the Colony. The explanation of that was this. The goods were sold on credit and they were often sold very much below the market. They were identical with goods, in some cases, which had been imported and were really lying ready for sale, for spot cash, in godowns in Hongkong, and evuld have been
It was no
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