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rule, inimical to China. At any rate, Britain is not. Sufficiently strong proof has been given of this during the past six months on the famine field. But it is a truism that there can be no real friendship where there is a sense of injustice. Let the stigma which rests on China's fair fame in connection with this matter be at once wiped out, or let her take the consequences.
Eighteen months is long enough to wait for what should have been exacted at once -too long. No further warning can be needed.
Sir,
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Extract from the " Shanghae Mercury" of July 4, 1907.
To the Editor of the "Shanghae Mercury."
11, Peking Road, Shanghae, July 4, 1907. YOU published an article last night on the subject of the riot at Shanghae in December 1905. This article contains statements which are not only incorrect, but which are exactly contrary to the truth. You assert that the Chinese authorities have refused to consent to an inquiry, whereas it is the Chinese authorities who have from the very first offered to have an inquiry, an offer which was refused by the foreign authorities, who have endeavoured to compel China to pay for damages caused by the riot, without any investigation as to the causes of the riot. This pressure was an act of gross injustice, and has naturally been strongly resisted by the Chinese authorities.
Almost immediately after the riot occurred the Viceroy of Nanking, his Excellency Chou Fu, came personally to Shanghae. He wrote to the Senior Consul (who was then the Russian Consul-General) and officially proposed that a joint inquiry should be held, and he named two deputies to act on his side, and invited the Consular Body to name two of their number to act on the foreign side so that the matter might be fully and promptly investigated. That offer was not accepted, as it ought to have been, and so no inquiry has ever been held.
You also beg the whole question by making very strong assertions from one point of view. There is another point of view altogether which must be fully investigated and considered before any just decision can be arrived at.
If damages are claimed, the whole matter must be fully and fairly investigated, and the Chinese authorities are ready and willing, as they have been from the very first, to have the matter so investigated. The issues that will have to be settled may produce very serious results.
bitterness that was raised during the two preceding years will continue to produce evil results for a considerable time to come, but it has undoubtedly lessened, and will die out, if not revived by an inquiry which will certainly intensify and aggravate ill-feeling. It must be remembered that many Chinese were killed and wounded during the riot, and that claims for compensation will be made, whereas no foreigners were killed, and only a very few injured. There is no desire on the Chinese side to shirk an inquiry, but only to secure that it is full and fair, and held before persons belonging to uninterested nationalities.
The British Minister (Sir Ernest Satow, I believe) unfortunately accepted the position of agent (as a sort of debt collector) for other nationalities having claims, and this adds greatly to the difficulties of the position.
I am, &c. (Signed) W. V. DRUMMOND.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
W. V. DRUMMOND,
Sir,
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Extract from the "North China Daily News" of July 8, 1907.
To the Editor of the "North China Daily News."
July 6, 1907. SO much misapprehension still exists with reference to the settlement of the question of the 1905 riot at Shanghae that it seems desirable to give some explanation.
The case for the foreign claimants appears to be that the Tantai of Shanghae, Yuan, was solely responsible for the riot. The case on the Chinese side is that the riot was the natural outcome of the grossly aggressive policy of the Municipal Council during the years 1904 and 1905. A full and fair investigation of the question of liability must therefore include both sides of the question, and therefore of municipal work and policy during those two years, otherwise it will be nothing better than an empty farce.
The Chinese view is that the investigation should be made before persons belonging to nationalities that have no interests in the matter, in other words, that it should not be held before British or Chinese authorities, and this is clearly a fair and reasonable contention.
I shall not touch upon the details of what can be said and proved on either side that can only be gone into when the investigation is being made.
I will only add one general observation on this subject. There has been a great improvement in the Council's work, in one respect since March 1906. The intense
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