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2. COMMUNICATIONS (Roads, Railways and Waterways, as suon
as the state of the country would justify such expenditure.-) This will tend to unify the country, help to extend the control of the Central Government, provide it with additional revenue, give employment to disbanded soldiers besides being of Lenefit to trade and reducing the perils of local famines.
Before asking you to support this Resolution I do not think it amiss to recall briefly a few outstanding facts in the history of the remission of the British share of the Boxer Indemnity.
As a mark of Britain's goodwill towards China, H. M. Government decided at the time of China's entry into the Great War in 1917 that the payment of her share of the Indemnity towards Great Britain would be suspended for five years.
In December, 1922, Mr. Bonar Law made the welcome announcement that the remission to China of our share of the Indemnity towards purposes mutually beneficial to both countries had been adopted "in principle" by H. M. Government. The resumption of payments of our share of the Boxer Indemnity was resumed in 1923 through the usual channels and is now being allowed to accumulate in a special fund until the necessary legislation has been passed. The China Indemnity Application Bill has been before parlia ment for some time and its second reading will be taken on the 10th of February. Meanwhile, as you will have seen from the papers a special advisory committee was appointed by the Government to advise them on this question and I think I may say that the views of the British Community in China will be taken into consideration in arriving at this important decision. As you know, the estimated aggregate of the sums involved is £11,000,000.— representing annuities of about £400,000.-— over a period of twenty-three years. Before the announcement of our Government's inten- tion to remit the Indemnity a movement was started by The Association of British Chambers of Commerce in China and Hongkong to provide funds in support of British Educational and Medical Institutions in China, who were n dire need of financial support. These efforts culminated in the excellent report issued in November, 1921 by the Special Central Committee con- stituted in Shanghai,
As a result of the appeal made by the Association from Shanghai in
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May, 1921, it was announced at the Conference of British Chambers held in February, 1923 that approximately $115,000. had been collected or de- finitely promised, of which $20,000. had been paid out to medical mis- sions, For the remainder of the money available a five year budget was repared out of which about $30,000. had been promised to eighteen
hools for five consecutive years.
At the Conference of British Chambers held in Shanghai in February, 1923 the following Resolution was passed:
"That this Conference welcomes the announcement recently made of the intention of His Majesty's Government to devote the outstanding portion of the Boxer Indemnity to purposes mutually beneficial to Great Britain and China.
That in the opinion of this Conference the purposes to which these funds can most usefully be applied in accordance with the above decision are the education of Chinese on British Lines and the support of British medical work in China.
That in the allocation of the funds devoted to educational work this Conference adheres to the view expressed in the report adopted by the last Conference of Chamber that first place should be given to the support of secondary schools in China under British control, but that funds should als by available for the development of primary education in China and for the provision of scholarships to Universities in Ilongkong and Great Britain.
"That this Conference further considers that part of the money to be remitted should be allocated to Hongkong University itself, and that such tunds as are allocated to the support of secondary education should be administered on the lines already adopted by the Associated Chambers."
Our Chairman has just read you the further Resolution which was passed on this subject at the Conference of British Chambers held in Shang nai in February, 1924. As you know, no conference took place this year, so that no further official expression of opinion on the part of the British Ceramunity has been submitted to our Government, since that date. It is true certain opinions have been brought to the notice of our Government at home on the part of the Federation of British Industries, but as far as I know these have remained without any official response from the British Chambers in China. In this connection I should like to read you the com-