CO129-501-2 Chinese situation- Boxer indemnity 5-2-1927 - 14-12-1927 — Page 42

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(F 7118/93/10).

Sir V. Wellesley.

Mr. Mounsey.

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Sir M. Lampson's telegram No. 1280 of August 25:-

This presumably is in reply to the telegram on

which I commented in my recent minute, a telegram which

I did not much like and which I had not seen in draft.

Sir M. Lampson seems to be of the same opinion too about

it.

We ought, I think, to go slow in regard to the Boxer

Indemnity question. Affairs in China are more chaotic

than ever, and the Customs Administration and foreign loans

in greater jeopardy than when the Provisional Committee was

first suggested.

There is no objection to the whole problem being

considered afresh here and in China, but we ought not,

I am sure, definitely to set up a Provisional Committee

under existing conditions as a step anticipatory of the

passing of a China Indemnity Act Amending Bill. We ought

not in fact to take any step on the assumption that this Bill

will shortly be passed. I do not believe that there is any

chance of Parliament passing such a Bill soon.

Therefore we should, it seems to me, continue to work

under the present Act, for unless we are careful we shall

be infringing its terms - especially if this new Provisional

Committee is regarded as a sort of semi-statutory body.

No further steps for the moment should be taken and

certainly