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to adopt a similar attitude. The question arises in this commection whether such an announcement should be made by you in the first place, or whether we should first comult with the other Powers.
Do you
think that in present circumstances a direct announce- ment by you at the Conference would have better effect on the Chinese and be more difficult for the other Powers to resist thrm prior consultation by us with their governments, who might not only obstruct our poposed action, but misrepresent its motives to the Chinese government in some such way as was suggested in paragraph 6 of your Conference telegram No. 18 ? 4. I have suggested granting the Washington surtaxes without conditions because if we endeavour to agree to conii Mons the Conference may drag on indefinitely. The danger of not imposing any con- ditions, however, is that this would be tantamount to presenting the militarist for the time boing in control of Peking with some 30 millions a year, and the experience of the last seven months suggests that this may lead to a further cycle of civil wars, rather than to any stabilisation of the new ad- ministration at Paking. Do you agree in the reality 0 this danger, and, if so, have you any suggestions as to how it may be averted?
5. With regard to the proposed promise to grant tariff autonomy the Coard of Trade, whom we have
consulted......
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