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By a protocol signed at Peking on the 14th June, 1902, the Boxer indemnity was fixed at 450,000,000 taels (tael-3s.), to be paid off by 1940, and to be divided as follows among the different Powers:-
Germany. Austria-Hungary Belgium
Spain
United States of America France
Per cent. 20.01567
*88976 1-88541
·03007
7.81979 15.75072 11-24901
11-26951
Taels. 90,070,515
4,008,920 8,484,345 135,315 82,959,055 70,878,240 50,620,545 92,250 26,617,005 34,793,100
GH
Great Britain Portugal.. Italy
Japan
Netherlands Russia
International claitus
Sweden and Norway
Grand total
02050
5-91489 7-78180 -17580
28.97136 08326
*0139604722
100.00000
782,100 130,371.120 149,670
62,820
450,000,000
50,712,795
212,490
In 1908 the United States Government, who, in contradistinction to His Majesty's Government, had very largely over-estimated their losses during the Boxer rising. voluntarily reduced the sum allotted to them (24,440,778 dollars) to 11.655.492 dollars, in return for a guarantee that a certain number of Chinese students should be sent to the United States for their education.
Four years later, in 1912, a proposal was put forward by Sir Evan Spicer, and supported by His Majesty's Minister in Peking and by the Foreign Office. to employ 400.000. out of the British share of the indemnity in order to found and maintain a Chinese university in Central China. The Treasury, however, did not agree, and the following passages taken from the Treasury reply of the 10th January, 1913, explain the Treasury point of view :-
The method in which the Boxer indemnity receipts should be used was considered in 1905 and 1906. and Parliament decided and enacted in paragraph 7 (2) of the Finance Act, 1906. that they should be applied in reduction of debt, this use being supported by the fact that the money represents repayment of expenditure originally met from the proceeds of debt created for the purpose. It does not appear to their Lordships that there is any sufficient reason for reopening the question thus decided. Should it be thought desirable that a sum of 400,000 should now be spent from public funds on the establishment and endowment of a university in China as suggested, the most convenient and proper method of finding the money would, in their Lordship's opinion, be to invite Parliament to provide that sum by means of a Special Vote in Supply as a grant in aid of the university. The interception of indemnity moneys earmarked to the extinction of debt would be contrary to all the established principles of national finance, and it would involve special legislation of a controversial character which their Lordships could not undertake to propose.
It appears, therefore, to their Lordships that the proposal for a university in China under British auspices must be separated entirely from all connection with the Boxer indemnity, and that only when thus separated can it be properly discussed on its merits. The proposal can then be shortly stated in the form of the question: Is it desirable that the British taxpayer should be asked to provide a sum of 400,000l. towards the establishment and endowment of a university in the centre of China?
"In view of the many demands upon the available resources of the Exchequer at the present time, of the increasing requirements of education in this country, and of the many other services upon which a sum of 400,000, if made available, could be usefully spent, my Lords are inclined to think that the question thus stated must be answered at once in the negative.**
The matter did not, however, drop here, and in the early part of 1914 practically all the Chambers of Commerce in the United Kingdom had been worked up to nemoralise the Treasury and the Foreign Office on the subject. After consultation with the Foreign Office, the Treasury addressed on the 23rd July. 1914, the following letter to the Manchester and other Chambers of Commerce :—
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The Chancellor of the Exchequer has had before him the memorial of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce asking for a grant from Imperial sources in aid of the proposed university in Central China. In reply, I am desired by him to say that the Government had occasion last year very carefully to consider the question of giving financial assistance to this project, and that, although the proposal to establish a British university in China, and by this means to promote British influence and interests in that country, is one which commands their sympathy. they were unable, after a careful review of all the circum stances, to see their way to accede to the request.
Mr. Lloyd George notes that no effort appears to have been made on the part of the promoters of the scheme to find by private effort any part of the sum required. If, however, it could be shown that a substantial proportion of this sum can be found from other than Imperial sources, he would be prepared to bring the matter again to the notice of His Majesty's Government."
On the outbreak of the war in 1914 the whole question was necessarily shelved, at in the spring of 1917 it was proposed, as an inducement to China to enter the war on the side of the Allies, that the indemnity payments should be postponed or even remitted altogether. In fact, the Treasury, in a letter of the 12th April. 1917, erated that:-
**In all the circumstances of the case, if it should prove that an offer to remit the balance of the indemnity is necessary to secure the political and diplomatic objects which His Majesty's Government have in view, and if the other Allied Powers concur and are willing to take a similar course, my Lords will not raise objections."
Subsequently, in February 1918, after considerable discussion among the Allied wers, it was agreed to suspend payment of the indemnity for five years, i.e., from 1917 to 1922, the terms for repayment of the suspended portions being as follows :- -
To Great Britain
וה
24
France
Japan
Belgium
1940-45
1923-40
1922-27
while Italy holds out for repayment in full after five years, i.e., in 1922.
The total amount of the indemnity to be paid to us before the end of 1945 is i1,188,5477.
But
From the foregoing it will be seen that the Foreign Office have in the past not een unsympathetic to the idea of utilising a part of the indemnity for educational purposes in China, and that the Treasury, on certain conditions, were prepared Just before the war to modify their original attitude at least to reconsider it. The official view of the Boxer indemnity must not be forgotten, namely, that the are of the indemnity due to this country represents the repayment of expenditure riginally met from the proceeds of debt created for the purpose.
The present would, therefore, perhaps hardly appear to be a very opportune moment for raising the matter again with the Treasury, were it not that the two
lowing considerations seem to render some action on our part necessary:-
1. An important despatch from Sir John Jordan (which, owing to more immediate demands, has only just been received from the printers) is now available, enclosing a memorandum on the question of education in China, with constructive suggestions as to the best means of spreading British influence in this sphere. A copy of this report is attached.
Briefly the proposals are-
(a.) To strengthen financially certain British institutions already in
existence in China.
(b) To give financial assistance to Hong Kong University, and to estab-
lish a school at Canton in close connection with the university. (c.) To give financial assistance to Chinese technical institutions already
in existence, and to the technical department of Peking University.
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