12.
465
+
2
tongues, of civilizations and distant provinces, which we call China, will ever own one Government
again. We cannot even find a cement which would bind together the federation of provinces." And it is at this juncture that the British Parliament is to be asked to hand over 11 millions sterling, due to the British tax payer, to a Board of Trustees which is to be appointed by a Government existing only in name, to a Board, moreover, which is apparently to be account- able to no one, not even to the phantom Government to which it would owe its origin. And this handing over of British Funds is to take place at once.
11,
It is, of course, obvious that the Board, or
at any rate the Chinese members of it, though it may be nominally appointed by the Chinese Government (if
there should happen to be at the moment a Cabinet in
Peking) will actually be nominated by the particular
War Lord who happens at the time to dominate the capital. It is equally obvious that the Board, when once nominated,
will be allowed to function only just so long as it carries
out the wishes of the Far Lord in question. It is not
very difficult to prophesy what the wishes of such a
War Lord with regard to the Indemnity money are likely
to be. The conditions being what they are, and what they seem likely to continue to be, it is hard to believe that any Englishman of standing would agree to serve on the Board. It would even in normal times, be difficult to organize the effective working of a Board which will presumably consist of persons scattered all over China, but which will have to deal with the investment of large sums of money, to say nothing of the question of grants.
14
I