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British goodwill to, and trust in, the Chinese nation as a whole, feels that it must be made clear that, as this change will make it necessary to amend the Act, his assent must be ex- pressed as subject to the approval of Parliament, which he will
do his best to secure."
Obviously, then, it was clearly understood on both
sides that the withdrawal of the control of the indemnity funds
from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs world involve
the repeal of the Act of 1925 and the enactment of a new statute
authorising the ultimate control of the funds to be vested in
the Board of Trustees a body exercising its functions in
China and comprising a predominantly Chinese membership.
We have reason to believe that an amending statute
Apparently
on the desired lines was actually 3398555W drafted.
it was never introduced into Parliament, partly on account of
the political chaos in China of which the mob attack on the
British Concession at Hankow and the "Nanking Incident" of 1927
were probably the most outstanding symptoms.
Of the meetings of Lord Buxton's Advisory Committee
which presumably took place between the date of the presentation
of its Report (Including and endorsing the Willingdon proposals)
on October 18, 1926, and the date of the Exchange of lotes of
September 1930, we have no direct knowledge; nor are we aware
of the nature of the consultations and negotiations which must
have taken place both in London and in China during the period
that immediately preceded the Exchange of Notes and the Act of
1931. We are therefore unable to offer any authoritative ex-
planation of the drastic change in policy which took place be-
tween 1926 and 1930, beyond that contained in the Memorandum
of November 14th, 1930, issued by Mr Arthur Henderson (then
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) as a preface to the
Exchange of Notes. A cursory perusal of the Exchange of Notes
hardly reveals the deep significance of the departures from the
policy that underlay the accepted Willingdon recommendations.