113
||2)
With the exception of Dr.W.W. Yen, who was last year
provisionally invited to be chairman, Dr. Lo did not seem
to think, however, that there would be any difficulty in
obtaining the assent of both parties to an agreed list of
Chinese members.
3.
Quite apart from the conversation above-mentioned, I
have for some time past been wondering whether we were really
well advised to continue leaving this question indefinitely
in its present indeterminate state, and whether, if only
to give impetus to the recent wave of friendlier feeling
towards us which has been noticeable in the south, we should
not now seriously consider making a move in the direction of
carrying out our promises. I am of course fully alive to
the fact that the political state of the country is little,
if any, clearer than it was in August last (it is indeed at
the moment of writing possibly more uncertain than ever), but
my own feeling is that we cannot for ever be deterred by this
consideration, and that the advantages of making some renewed
gesture of generosity now outweigh any difficulties that I can
foresee. I say this with full regard to the other possibi-
lities concerning the disposal of the funds which I have
thought it incumbent upon me to discuss at some length in my despatch No.402, which will be forwarded to you simultaneously
with this one.
4. The difficulty now really seems to lie at home, first in the trend of public opinion, and secondly in the question how soon it would be possible to introduce the Amending Act into Parliament in the event of our proceeding with the formation of the provisional committee out here. Unless there is some hope of the passing of the necessary legislation at a not too distant date, there would to my mind be little
use