79
NO DISTRIBUTION.
Cypher telegram to Sir M. Lampson (Peking),
Foreign Office, 24th November, 1928.
9.00 p.m.
No. 363.
Your telegram io. 1159 (of October 18th:
Boxer Indemnity).
1. question of unconditional remission of Indemnity
is still unsettled and will come up before the Cabinet
shortly. It has however been approved by available
members of Advisory Committee, subject to indication to
the Chinese government that committee's original
recommendation had been unanimously in favour of
devoting bulk of the funds to educational and other
cultural purposes. They consider that accumulated
deposits should also eventually be unconditionally
remitted.
2. Unpaid balance can, as stated in my telegram
No. 256, be dealt with by resolution in the House of
Commons. Accumulated deposits may present greater
difficulty as they are controlled by an Act of Parilɛment.
We can either, as hitherto contemplated, pass an
Amending Bill, but it is practically certain that this
cannot be done before the General Election. Or we can
proceed to deal with it under the 1925 act. For this
purpose a sub-committee would be necessary in China to
advise the Advisory Committee here, who would in turn
advise the Secretary of State by whose act the money
would then be allocated.
The members composing this
sub-committee.....