6.
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rangement with the Chinese authorities, as a loan
without interest for the payment of British commercial
debts and other specified claims, such a loan to be repaid
to the Indemnity Fund when China liquidates the
cial debts and claims of other Powers, or in sosordance
with any debt consolidation scheme that may eventually
be adopted. As regards the principle underlying this
suggestion, I can only say that, while I do not myself
favour such a solution of the difficulty, a loan would not
have the objectionable features applying to a grant.
8. There are two possibilities that present them-
selves to me in this connection. In the first place, as
I mentioned in my telegram No. 1709 of December 9th, it
might conceivably be found possible to arrange for the
relief of some small part of this burden of debt by the
use of the accrued interest on the accumulɛted Boxer
indemnity funds ( amounting at the moment of writing to
some £200,000), leaving the funds themselves intact.
It may be said that Meither in this case, nor in the event
of the use of the accumulated instalments themselves, which
I