establishment the Deputation advocates. The Chinese members of the Deputation were reluctant to visit Hong Kong without going to Canton also, and their British colleagues respected this attitude, and thereby doubtless contributed towards unanimity in the Deputation. But it does occur to me that Hong Kong is after all a British Colony, and that the attempt on the part of the Canton Soviet to ruin flong Kong (admittedly as the first step towards the destruction of British trade, influence and prestige in China generally) by methods which His Majesty's Govern- ment have since described as those befitting brigands and pirates, was scarcely a circumstance which should have been regarded with indifference by persons, whatever their nationality, who had consented to serve on a British Parliamentary Committee. This Committee was appointed by Act of Parliament to advise the Foreign Secretary as to the purposes on which money due to the British Treasury should be spent, these purposes being required by the said Act to be of mutual interest to His Majesty and to the Republic of China. The mischief has already been done and cannot now be undone; but I still feel bewildered when I reflect that in the long process of humiliation to which this Colony has recently been subjected, a blow so damaging to its interests was struck by a Deputation of His Majesty's Government, which decided that, unless its members were allowed to go at the same time to Canton, there to negotiate as friends bringing gifts, with men whose avowed object was the ruin of all things British, not even the compliment of a passing visit could be paid by it to Hong Kong. My bewilderment is only increased when I observe that the Deputation had no hesitation in visiting Marshal Wu Pei-fu and Marshal Sun Chuan-fang, with both of whom the Canton Government is actually at war.
3. Turning now to the recommendations which the Report makes, I notice that there is one constructive suggestion and one only. This suggestion is that His Majesty's Government should by statute hand over the China Indemnity Fund to a As soon as the Board of Trustees to be created by the Government of China.” Board is organized the Statutory Advisory Committee is to be dissolved: in other words. His Majesty's Government are, as soon as the Board has been established, to renounce all further responsibility for the spending of the fund, though it is suggested that they should be sent a copy of the Board's Annual Report. Seeing that by the time the first Annual Report is received (if such a report is ever written) His Majesty's Government will have handed over the fund to the Board unconditionally, the reports might perhaps be filed by His Majesty's Government for perusal by themselves and by Parliament; but the only action which His Majesty's Government could presumably take, in the event of a report disclosing a condition of scandal, would be to make a diplomatic protest to the Government of China. There is not at the moment any Government of China; but the present Peking habit, which seems likely to persist, is not to regard diplomatic protests very seriously.
Six of these Eleven members are to constitute the Board of Trustees. members are to be Chinese and five are to be British; and all these members are to be appointed in the first instance, and in the first instance only, by the Chinese Government. Four members are to be appointed for a term of one year, four for two years and three for three years. Lots are to be drawn at the first meeting of the Board to decide each member's tenure of office. After the first term the tenure After its first meeting the Board of office of all members is to be for three years.
4.
is to be self-propagating, every vacancy being filled up by a vote of not less than seven members. All members are to be eligible for re-election, and the Board is to elect its own Chairman, who may be either Chinese or British. The Chairman shall serve for three years and be eligible for re-election. The proportion of six Chinese and five British is to be maintained up to the beginning of 1945; but during that year the Board is to have power to replace any or all the British members by Chinese members. The Bourd is to appoint from among its members an Executive The Report Committee of five, of whom two shall be British and three Chinese. puts forward this recommendation absolutely; but it must obviously be read jointly with the recommendation as to the ultimate personnel of the Board. Seeing that after 1945 the Board may be wholly Chinese, it follows that this may be the case with the members of the Executive Committee also. The Report also advises that une condition of membership of the Executive Committee should be residence in China, which suggests that it was the Deputation's intention that membership of the Board should be open to non-residents in China. This concession would seen It would to be not without an important bearing on the working of the Board, enable a member to be indefinitely absent from China and, therefore, practically
3
non-operative, so far as sharing in the Board's functions is concerned, and yet to continue to be a member of the Board. Even if under such circumstances a member were to resign, it would presumably be within the competence of the Board to decline to accept his resignation and thus avoid the obligation of electing another member on the plea that the absent member might return to China and resume his office.
5. The Board is only required to meet twice a year, but special meetings may
445 be called by the Chairman on his own initiative or on a written report signed by at least four members. The Board is to have power to make its own Rules and Bye-Laws. The Governments of Great Britain and China are each to have the right to send an observer to attend the meetings of the Board. These observers are apparently not to be allowed to take any part in the proceedings; they are not to be members of the Board, but merely spies on its working. Anyone who has any knowledge whatever of the workings of Oriental politics generally, and of Chinese politics in particular, will realise what an exceedingly dangerous suggestion this is. It is not unlikely that this recommendation will be bitterly resented by the Chinese, especially in the event of the Board being eventually composed entirely of Chinese members.
6. The Board is to have the power to apply the Indemnity Fund to such educational and other purposes, and to make such investments for the perpetuation of the Fund, as it may from time to time determine, in accordance with the general scheme and particulars laid down by the Advisory Committee. advises that a sum of £350.000 should be made annually available and that it should The Deputation he distributed between four main heads of expenditure. viz.
(a) Agriculture, 30 per cent.
(b.) Scientific research and medicine, 40
per cent,
(c) Other educational purposes and administration, 30 per cent. The Deputation further suggests that the necessary financial arrangements should be made to raise a sum not exceeding £5,200,000 and not less than £3,500,000 during the years 1927-31 for investment in some constructive work in China beneficial to the people. Proceeds from such investments are to be devoted to the purposes of carrying on in perpetuity, after the complete amortisation of the China Indemnity in 1945, the educational and other work which is to be subsidised, supported or encouraged.
7. These recommendations suggest that what the Deputation had in view was that the Chinese Government, in being invited to constitute the proposed Board of Trustees, to which body the Chinese Indemnity is to be made over, should at least be requested, if not instructed, by His Majesty's Government to impose upon such Board the obligation to proceed in the spending of the money in accordance with principles determined by the Advisory Committee, these principles being in effect put forward as conditions on which His Majesty's Government might agree to hand over to the Chinese Government the Indemnity Fund. But this was apparently not the intention of the Deputation. For referring to the percentages in accordance with which it was suggested that the annual income should be spent, the Deputation states explicitly that these percentages should be regarded by the Board of Trustees as intended for their general guidance only. The Deputation adds that the Board should not be debarred from transferring a portion of the money available for expenditure under one head to one of the other heads. The Board of Trustees would, in effect, not be going beyond the letter of the Deputation's Report, if it spent the whole of its income on administration. Then, again, the Deputation advises that the work selected for investments should be railway construction, adding that, of the railway projects brought to its notice, the one which should, in its opinion, be preferred, provided that political and other difficulties are not found to be insuper- able, is the completion of the Hankow-Canton Railway. The Deputation advises further, that, if for any cause this Railway project has to be abandoned, the money available for investment should be devoted to conservancy work, and it proceeds to name two such schemes as being most deserving of support. Impartial experts are to be selected before any railway or conservancy scheme is definitely adopted. If the impartial experts submit unfavourable reports, or if the Board of Trustees itself considers that political and other conditions in China are such as to make these undertakings unduly speculative, then the delegates advise that the money to the credit of the Indemnity Fund at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank should at once be invested in approved stock in China or abroad, and that the sum in excess of the ament which is to be spent annually for the other purposes named (£350,000) be similarly invested and added to the capital sum with the interest annually accruing.
[15545]
B 2
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.