H
ANNUAL MEETING
held, by courtesy of the P. & O. 8. N. Co., at 122, Leadenhall Street, B.C.,
on Tuesday, the 91st April, 1914.
The Annual Meeting of the China Association was held on 21st April, 1914, at the offices of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company, 122, Leadenhall Street, E.C. Mr. Geo Jamieson, C.M.G., presided, and the following mombers were also present:— Sir Charles Dudgeon, Sir Walter C. Hillier, Messrs. F. J. Abbott, F. Anderson, Byron Brenan, C.M.G., J. C. Bois, Ed, Cousins, F. Cornes, A. S. Garfit, William Harwood, Horace G. Harwood, Edgar G. Houle, Robert H. Hill, C. A. Heimann, H. H. Joseph, William D. Little, D. H. Mackintosh, C. Selby Moore, H. Russell Preston, H. W. Robertson, C. H. Ross, Charles V. Sale, F. Salinger, Gershom Stewart, H. D. Stewart, A. M. Townsend, H. C. Twigge, H. Wilcocksun, R. Chatterton Wilcox, and H. C. Wilcox (Secretary).
Proposing the adoption of the report and accounts the Chairman said:-
As the report has been circulated 1 do not propose to go into it now. The year which has elapsed has in many ways been a remarkable one, full of stirring events in China, and the Committee has had its fair share of responsibility in advising and taking action in certain matters that have been before us. A good part of the report is taken up by the political situation, and some of you may think that an undue amount of
space has been given to this subject; but I do not intend to offer any apology for enlarging upon it, for it seems to me that the political situation is the base of your whole business. In the report which is before you we have endeavoured to take a view as optimistic as possible of the future, but I am bound to say inany things have happened since the report was in type that give rise to serious misgivings. In the first place, the continued depredations of the brigand known as the White Wolf have caused the most wanton and lamentable destruction of life and property in scores of defenceless towns and villages. Heartrending accounts from foreign eye-witnesses of the suffering and misery entailed on a helpless people continue to appear in the Press, and little or nothing is being done by the local authorities to put an end to such crimes. Troops sent to arrest and punish the culprits have grossly failed in their duty, or have even turned brigands themselves, plundering the very villages they were sent to protect. How far these outrages are due to the negligence or indifference of Yuan Shib-kai's Government remains to be seen, but
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