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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
Printed for the Cabinet. December 1926.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C.P. 418 (26),
CABINET.
Copy No.
81
444
THE BOXER INDEMNITY.
MEMORANDUM CIRCULATED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.
AS my colleagues are aware, the report of the Advisory Committee appointed under The China Indemnity (Application) Act, 1925, which has recently been published as Cmd. No. 2766, was based largely on the report of a Delegation of six British and Chinese members, headed by Lord Willingdon, who toured China during the first half of this year in order to gain first-hand knowledge of existing conditions and requirements.
EL
The recommendations of the Advisory Committee have in turn given rise to The China Indemnity (Amendment) Bill, 1926," which the Cabinet recently decided should not be proceeded with at the present time, in view of the fact that the whole situation in China is under the consideration of this Committee.
Before any further decision is taken on the subject of the Bill, I think that my colleagues would wish to read the accompanying despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong containing a critical examination of the Delegation's report. Sir C. Clementi is doubtless influenced in his attitude by the fact that Hong Kong University was neglected by the Delegation, but when all allowances have been made for the indignation which such neglect might be expected to arouse in the Colony, I must confess that I find his criticisms very damaging.
In sum, his representations amount to this: The only real alternatives are to abandon the indemnity altogether or to spend it on institutions for the benefit of China which we control, such as Hong Kong University; all else is eyewash. But if eyewash of this sort is really necessary, why cannot the just requirements of Hong Kong University be satisfied once and for all by an initial lump sum grant, leaving the remainder of the Indemnity to be disposed of by the Chinese Militarists or extremists as they please?
I. S. A.
Downing Street, December 15, 1926.
(Secret.) Sir.
Government House, Hong Kong. October 18, 1926.
WITH reference to your secret despatch of the 30th August, 1926, and to its enclosures. I have the honour to say that the Report of the British China Indemnity Deputation to the Advisory Committee is a great disappointment to me. I had hoped that the effect of Lord Willingdon's Deputation would be to smooth the way to better conditions in China; but I cannot resist the conviction that the Report is calculated to exasperate and prolong the present difficulties and will do nothing to maintain the prestige of Great Britain in China.
2. At the outset, I am constrained to protest against that paragraph on page 12 of the Report, in which the Deputation seeks to justify its omission to visit Hong Kong. The impression conveyed by this paragraph is. I submit, that of two quarrel- some neighbours, both of whom are in the wrong. The Deputation, therefore, ignores both Hong Kong and Canton, though it adds as an obvious afterthought (page 63) that the University of Hong Kong, which its members declined to visit, and which the majority of them have never seen, is doing excellent work for the education of the Chinese, and is worthy of every consideration at the hands of a Board whose
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