:
4.
457
only, by the Chinese Government. Four members are to be appointed for a term of one year, four for two years and three for three years. Lots are to be drawn at the first meeting of the board to decide each member's tenure of office. After the first term the tenure of office of all members is to be for three years. After its first meeting the Board is to be self-propagating, every vacancy being filled up by a vote of not less than seven members. All members are to be eligible for re-election and the Board is to elect its own Chairman, who may be either Chinese or British. The Chairman shall serve for three years and be eligible for re-election. The proportion of six Chinese and five British is to be maintained up to the beginning of 1945; but during that year the Board is to have power to replace any or all the British members by Chinese members. The Board is to appoint from among its members an Executive Committee of five, of whom two shall be British and three Chinese. The Report puts forward this recommendation absolutely; but it must obviously be read jointly with the recommendation as to the ultimate personnel of the Board. Seeing that after 1945 the Board may be wholly Chinese, it follows that this may be the case with the members of the Executive Committee also. The Report also advises that one con- dition of membership of the Executive Committee should be residence in China, which suggests that it was the Deputation's intention that membership of the Board should be open to non-residents in China. This concession would seem to be not without an important bearing on the working of the Board. It would enable a member to be indefinitely absent from China and, therefore, practically non-operative,
6
80