J
1
BRITISH POLICY
IN CHINA.
PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENT.
DESIRE FOR PEACE.
Times Time 16
WESTMINSTER, MONDAY.
The Socialist Party gave the Chinese rioters the gratuitous advertisement of expending all Monday's store of energy in insinuative inquiry as to the wrongs they have suffered and inflicted. available information, tapped by Ms. TREVELYAN, MR. LAWSON, and others, bubbled inexhaustibly from Ma. Samuel,
The
The primary cause of the riots, he said, was general industrial unrest of some months standing in the Japanese mills at Shanghai. The proximate cause was the killing of a Chinese employee in the latter, after the murder of a Japanese mill manager. But the immediate result was & joint and murderous attack by workmen and students upon the police- station, which was also an armoury. The police had fired, after due warning, to save their own lives and to prevent
the crowd seizing arma. There had been 21 Chinese killed and 65 wounded. One foreigner had also been wounded." An
Any police ?" asked MR. LANSBURY eneer- ingly, I hope not," retorted MR, SAMUEL in his best and shortest reply
of the day.
The whole trouble is due to the
employment of children under 11," shouted MR. WILL THORNE. Subsequent explosions from his colleagues reduced the age to eight. MR. JACK JONES already saw the hidden hand of capitalism moving battleships to save the exploiters from the penalty of their crimes. MR. SAMUEL patiently endeavoured to extinguish these blazes with stream of placid volubility. It was true that labour conditions in the mills were deplorable,"
judged by our standards, but they were better in the British Concession than anywhere else. The British community, with the full assistance of the British Consul-General and the British Government, though possessing no control over the labour conditions in the Concessions, had secured the putting down of an ameliorative regulation for discussion by the Shanghai Council in April. There had
matter would have come before the Council on June 2 but for the outbreak. MR. LOOKER, & resident of many years in China, came to Mr. Samuel's rescue with the statement that the British mills did enforce similar regulations of their own, and SIR WILLIAM DAVION saw in the matter the result of "Red" lettera reaching their destination unchallenged. But
CAPTAIN GEE was rebuked by the SPEAKER for suggesting that some had reached the Socialist questioners. Only the assurance of the complete harmony of the Treaty Powers and congratula tions to their senior representative at Peking upon his able handling of the situation passed without uproar.
hren been no quorum, but the
The
WORK OF AGITATORS. When MR. TREVELYAN raised the question of disturbances at Hankow and Peking itself, the House finally heard the immediate cause of the whole series. The general unrest had been exploitedi by agitators, and the Chinese authorities had entirely failed to cooperate in taking timely mensures to deal with it. situation at Hankow, where an attack on the British Concession had resulted in 10 Chinese casualties, and whither: a British warship had been dispatched. was still serious, that at Peking was not. This brought up Ma. MacDosald to beg that every effort should be made to prevent the riots from developing into an "international conflict with Chină.
MR. BALDWIN at once repeated his earnest assurances of last week that peace in China was the chief objective of all our efforts. The root cause of the whole trouble was the non-existence of a strong Chinese Government. We must protect the lives of foreigners both on the coast and inland. But the dispatch of foreign and Chinese investigators to Shanghai, whose inquiry would, he believed, be quite harmonious, ground for some hope that the unrest might be appeased and the way opened for the Treaty Powers to negotiate stable settlement with China at a tariff conferenceđ conference which,
he trusted, would lead to the formation of
• strong central Government in China. capable of dealing with such troubles itself.
Wag
MR. BALDWIN'S ASSURANCE DESIRE TO SECURE PEACE IN
CHINA.
Mr. TREVELTAN "Newcastle, Central, Lab.) asked the Under-Secretary for Torsign Affairs whether he could give any information! es to the nature and extent of the disturbances at Hankow and the loss of life ensuing; whether there was any trouble in Peking; and whether, besides moving troops and ships of war, the Government had begun to make any proposals for removing the root causes of the widespread ili-will manifested in Ching to certain foreign nationalitles.
Mr. A. M. SAMUEL-On June 11 there was a riot at Hankow by a large and violent mob. which, I regret to say, killed one Japanese subject and badly wounded two. The ziot culminated in a determined attack on the British concession. Firing only took place in the last resort after the use of the fire-hose had falled; it resulted in 16 casualties, of which two were fatal. His Majesty's Consul reports that the firing was necessary and inevitable. Hnd the Chinese authorities cooperated promptly with the defence force this deplor able loss of life would have been avoided: when they eventually did so, the situation hecame easier. All the foreign naval forces present cooperated in the defence of the British, French, and ex-Russian concessions at Hankow. The situation there still gives cause for anxiety, but ... Holly hork was re- ported yesterday to be due shortly from Nun- klug, and will later be replaced by H.M.S. Despatch.
I have no official information as to the strikes in foreign factories in Hankow which, according to newspaper reports, have been occurring for some time eat, and which apparently were the immediate occasion of the disturbance but it is clear that the Jan- kow disturbances are similar in bature to those at Shanghai, that is to say, they are a symp- tom of a deep and widespread unrest exploited by interested parties--(Tabour cheer)-to stir up feeling against those foreign Powers which. precisely because they are the Powers with the largest interests in China, are deeply cau- cerned to cooperate with her in the task of progress and reform, There have been, and there continue to be, demonstrations by students nt Peking, but they are not considered to be dangerous,
In the opinion of his Majesty's Government, the surest remedy for the ill-will towards foreign nationalities now being manifested in China will Jie in an attempt on the part of the Treaty Powers to give practical effect to the spirit of the decisions reached at the Washington Conference, a spirit which contem. plated the cooperation of China and the Powers in measures beneficial to China ag * whole. His Majesty's Government, now and for some time past, have beeg considering the best means of overcoming the difficulties that militate against the success of any such attempt. Those difficulties and this may be Raid without any desire to apportion respon- sibility arise largely from the absence of effective Governmental authority in China. His Majesty's Government trust that the approach. ing Tarift Conference will afford an oppor- tunity for removing such obstacles, for disi- paling the present atmosphere of unhappy - distrust, and for inaugurating a new era of fruitful cooperation between China and the Powers,
Mr. W. THORNE (Plaistow, Lab.)-Is the hon. gentlenian aware that one of the causes why many of us are taking a deep interest in thia Shanghai business is that wo were ex- ploitod when we were 18 years of age?
Cheers) Mr. A. M. SAMUEL We all take an interest in it. We all desire the peace and prosperity of China, and his Majesty's Govern ment will do all they can assist China towards that end.
Mr. MACDONALD (Aberavon, Lab.).-May I ask if the Government is quite satisfied that it is taking, in cooperation with the other Allies, every step possible to prevent this dis- turbance changing its features into a really big international trouble in the Far East F
Mr. BALDWIN.-I can certainly assure the House that that is the case. We are watching
the situation most anxiously, and, as I believe was announced to the House, the Treaty Powers represented at Peking have sent a Commission of Inquiry to Shanghai to Investi- gate and to report with all speed. The Chinese Government have sent two high officials to conduct a similar inquiry, and I have every reason to believe that these two inquiries will work together in perfect harmony and with a desire to attain the same end, which is peace in China, and enable us to take the steps which have been foreshadowed to try to come to an arrangement on the internal tariffs, which may help in the consolidation, of a Chinese Government, the absence of which, whatever other cause there may be, is one of the root causes, at any rate, of the present trouble, and of why it in so difficult to grapple, as a Central Government would be able to grapple, with troubles of this sort. Mr. MACDONALD,-May we be assured that the Government's position is not only, however absolutely essential it is, to protect life, but also to remove the very serious polition) troubles in China? Mr. BALDWIN.-We do. not lose sight of that, One of the diffeulties is that it is an essential duty, at a time like this, so far as we are able, to protect the lives of the European people, not only in the port towns, but it may be inland in China. Cheers. Mr. W. THORNE-Remove the cause.) The position is extremely difficult, but I can assure the House that the Goverment will do everything it can to secure the end we all desire.
MR. A. CHAMBERLAIN'S RETURN.
Mr. BALDWIN, replying to ST-COM- Mandar KenworTuy, said the Foreign Secre tary (Mr. A. Chamberlain) could not return to London until Thursday, and he hoped it would he possible for him to make a statement early in the following week. It was very desirable, especially with the Chinese question ou, that he should have two or three days in Loudon before he made his statement to the House.
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