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The same applies to currency reform. The currency of the country, which I am told was showing signs of progress last year, has shifted back under the disorder of this summer, but the very fact that it has done so has accentuated the strength of public opinion, and I can only hope that the coming year will see some definite step taken towards the establishment of a central mint in Shanghai, the ground for which I was recently told by the Minister of Finance has already been acquired. A unified currency for the whole country would be an unmixed blessing for everybody.
I see you are to discuss the question of the Russian and ex-German concessions at Hankow and Tien-tsin. I had not intended to say anything on this subject as coming under the category of political issues about which by a long standing and very sound Foreign Office ruling His Majesty's representatives are debarred from airing their views in public, but the day before I left for Shanghai at an interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. his Excellency invited me to tell the conference that the Chinese Government had no wish or intention to cause the slightest injury to British interests by their action under the Presidential Mandate in substituting Chinese for Russian authority in the Russian concession, and if ever I had any reason to complain that British interests were being adversely affected, he would always be ready to listen sympathetically with a view to meeting the difficulty. I think, gentlemen, if may be of interest to you to hear this and I may add that I propose to take his Excellency at his word.
I will not weary you by commenting on all the proposed resolutions. There are many experts among you who will state in a more practical way than I can their views and their suggestions for constructive work,
I will only refer to two other subjects which are upon your agenda, namely. opium and the new consortium.
In regard to the former, as you all know, His Majesty's Government made sacrifices of revenue entailing vast administrative changes which are evidences of our good faith to China and to the world, and of our earnest desire to abolish all traffic in the drug. It must not be forgotten that China also made great sacrifice when she destroyed existing stocks of opium in the country. Unfortunately, political unrest has caused a recrudescence of the cultivation and sale of opium in this country, but I believe that public opinion both in China and the British Empire is pledged to the ultimate elimination of the opium evil. I am glad, therefore, to see that you are considering this question and will be able to suggest some practical measures to meet the present difficulties.
"The new consortium has now been formed, and by it the Powers concerned have definitely set their face against indiscriminate loans to ('hina for administrative or non-productive purposes. The consortium is designed to build up the strength of the country, to assist in the re-establishment of internal peace, and to forward the productive development of this great country in the interests of the Chinese people. Let us hope that this will be realised by the better-informed and more thoughtful members of the Chinese communities throughout the country, and that public opinion will gradually recognise the value of the consortium and give solid support to its aims.
I can assure you that the resolutions of this conference will receive the most careful consideration of His Majesty's Legation and of His Majesty's Government to whom they will be forwarded, and that everything possible will be done to give effect to such constructive proposals as you are able to lay before us.
I have only this morning received from Sir John Jordan a message by telegram which he asked me to convey to you. It reads as follows:-
Please accept my heartiest wishes for a successful meeting. I have the happiest memories of your last conference, of fruitful discussions, and wise resolutions which gave authoritative expression for the first time to collective needs and aims of British trade in China. The value of your annual conferences is fully recognised here: and your deliberations will be watched with the keenest interest.
"At the same time, I am given to understand that your deliberations were followed with no less interest by the Chinese. That interest. I have little doubt, will
rather than diminish.
grow
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In conclusion, gentlemen, let me thank you again for your welcome. recognise in that welcome a tribute not to me personally, but to the position which for the time being I have the honour to occupy, though I fear that with my four
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months' experience of China I am but a poor substitute for your last year's president. with his forty years' acquaintance with this country. But you may rest assured that the never failing interest which Sir John took in the development of our commercial position in China has become a tradition which will be respected and followed for all time by His Majesty's Legation."
NEW TENDENCIES IN CHINA.
The following are passages from the very interesting speech made at the opening session of the conference by His Majesty's Commercial Secretary of Legation. Peking, Mr. Archibald Rose, C.I.E. :—
I have recently returned from a tour of the provinces lasting over two months, and have met most of the Chinese who are playing leading parts in the Government, industry and finance of the country. I cannot express too strongly my sense of the change which is coming over China, of the developments which I notice since last I made any prolonged tour in the interior. In the province of Shansi I found a regular army of soldiers constructing a road which will run from one end of the province to the other. All along the railway lines I found chimneys going up and industries established under a purely Chinese Administration. At many of the interior towns 1 found roads being built, municipal works established, an unexpected mobility of capital and men doing their business on entirely new lines. There can be no doubt that a real development has set in in China and among the Chinese.
"I could not but be impressed with the thought of a changing China. As in politics and diplomacy, so in industry and commerce, one was conscious of the stirrings of that spirit of revolt against foreign ascendancy which the impact of western civilisation provokes sooner or later among the people of the east. realised that the Chinese had brains and practical ability and adaptability in a high degree, and that they are turning their attention to western methods in a way which we hardly realise when we are living in the midst of the foreign communities in China. Much of their work is naturally in an experimental stage, handicapped by lack of technical knowledge and a little crude, but I am convinced that before many years have passed we shall see great Chinese merchant houses and great ('hinese industries springing up all over the country, and that they will play no unimportant part in the world's trade.
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I do not believe that these developments are creating any anti-foreign feeling, rather the reverse. With a better understanding of foreign trade and of the mutual interests involved in it, the Chinese seem to me to be more ready than ever to work with us, to learn such things as we may have to teach them. and to give us the benefit of their local knowledge, believing that trade is most successful and most profitable when both parties to the bargain are content. The spirit of the moment in fact is one of co-operation: the Chinese are now willing to co-operate with us: to work with us rather than for us, and I think that we should go half-way to meet them.
"I should like to say a word too about aviation and wireless, two commercial enterprises which have recently been started in China and which have met with a good deal of criticism and misunderstanding. It is argued not without reason- that such luxuries are premature in a country where financial stringency and undeveloped transport appear to indicate the wisdom of a more conservative policy on the part of the Chinese. But we must remember that the Chinese will have such luxuries, that they will obtain then somewhere and on some terms; that there is a real possibility of putting them to practical use, and that it is not practicable even if it were desirable to dictate to China what is good for her. Nations learn such lessons best for themselves.
British manufacturers and merchants have sold to the Chinese a good deal of naterial both for wireless and for aviation. It seems to me that our part is to work with patience and perseverance; to see that goods bought in England are used productively, effectively. and in the interests of the country that has bought them. A great wireless station has just been completed at Urga in Northern Mongolia. The expert who superintended the erection assures me that his Chinese mechanics did their task with wonderful efficiency and created a world's record in point of time.
As to aviation, His Majesty's Government has placed at the disposal of the Chinese Government one of our most distinguished aeronautical experts, and China has undertaken that the aeroplanes now being delivered will be used for commercial purposes only. I understand that a mail service between Peking and Shanghai is being planned by the Chinese Government."