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promise them protection, and tell them that we would not
mind cere the farmers and workmen; and when all the parties are
present, we would say nothing. But this is an idle libel.
I would beg you to ask the strikers if I have said to them
that I would not take care of you merchants, and I would ask
you if I have said to you merchants that I would take no
heed of the farmers and workmen. I have not. What we have
at present to do is the work for our national revolution.
We must protect the common interests of all classes of people
The success of our National Revolution will bring benefit to
all people alike, and only the members of the Kak Ming Tong who are willing to sacrifice themselves, will get nothing.
To speak the truth, all farmers, workmen and merchants
of our China should sympathize with one another's distress,
What we urgently require at present is the abandonment of the unequal treaties, and what is of paramount importance to us is to restore the management of the Customs. Let me ask
you if the restoration of the management of the Customs will benefit the merchants. In the 8th year of the Republic
(1919), at the Paris Peace Conference, a certain man Wing,
representative of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, stated frankly that he would make no comment on anything except the Customs question. For since the management of the Customs fell into the hands of foreign Powers, the duty on
foreign goods has been only very small, while that on our
own goods has been much heavier. Thus how can we keep up our commercial competition with the foreigners? Moreover, the Powers can impose any tax on our goods we send to them, but they only pay us duty for their goods according to the tariff fixed by the Powers themselves. If this question is not resolved, our Chinese merchants can never hope for prosperity. Therefore he came to the Conference and fought vigorously for the restoration of the Customs. Now with the help of the farmers and workmen, we are fighting for the
restoration