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96
The
consulted informally, feel very strongly that-we should lay ourselves open to severe criticism from commercial opinion in this country unless it is coupled in some way with the abolition of likin. resolution adopted on the 17th November did not make the grant of tariff autonomy conditional upon the abolition of likin, but you have always assured us that the two are in fact interdependent and state- ments to the sane effect have been made by the Chinese delegation. The anticipated criticism might be disarmed if emphasis were laid upon this essential interdependence of the two questions in the statement which it is suggested you should make, and which might take the form that the resolution adopted on November 19th should be regarded as binding on both sides, and that it is expected that the Chinese government will take reasonably satisfactory measures to meet the expectations of the forsign Powers as regards payment of the unsecured debt. It would be difficult for me to justify in Parliament the grant of tariff autonomy without something in return in the shape of abolition of likin and it would obviously be unsatisfactory that the interdependence of these two questions should be allowed to rest on mutual assurances alone, unless therefore you see any ob- jection I should much prefer to see it embodied in a treaty. Should you think it unwise or impossible
to...