142
(7)
Fara. 13. This "greatest objection" urged by Sir C.
Clementi to the Board of Trustees, namely "that it would per-
petuate the memory of the whole Boxer episode", has never been
suggested from any other source, and seems altogether unreal.
The Boxer episowe is not going to be forgotten any more than
the Franco-German or South African Wars
It is now a matter
of history.
The Board of Trustees will, however, perpetuate
the memory of the friendly and considerate spirit which actu--
ated the refund or the Indemnity after China had been Great
Britain's ally in the Great War.
Peras. 14-17. The general tone and tenor of Xir
ementi's criticisms and suggestions appear to be based on the
idea that longkong is the hub of China, and that our China
policy in great matters as in small must revolve pon Hongkong.
A claim on behalf of Hongkong University, which no doubt
does good work in its own sphere, is reasonable, and has been
edmitted as such both by the Delegation and by the Committee.
But a claim of the dimensions put forward by Sir C. Clementi,
which is to have privilege in urgency before all other claims
and which would absorb nearly one fifth of the whole Fund, is
indefensible. It would, most certainly, and not unreasonably,
be considered by the Chinese as a deliberate perversion of the
declared intentions of the British Government to apply the
Indemnity to the mutual benefit of China and Great Britain.
,