307
$
II. The situation created by the Exchange of
Notes of September 1930 and the China Indemnity (Application)
Act.1931.
The second of our terms of reference has bear- ings on a matter of such fundamental importance that we
In it we were directed to
pro ose to deal with it first. "consult with the Board of Trusrees.
· • ·
•
as to the steps to be
taken to give effect to Dr Wang's undertaking to apply the bulk of the funds to the creation of an endowment to be sub- sequently devoted to the educational purposes mentioned in WWWA the Report of the Anglo-Chinese Advisory Committee pub- lished in 1926?" This quotation from Dr Wang (then Chinese Kinister for Foreign Affairs) will be found in paragraph 2 of his Note to H.M.'s Minister in China dated September 19th, 1930. (White Paper, China No.3,1930.)
In accordance with these directions, we con-
sulted members of the Board of Trustees and others on this subject, and we attended by invitation a meeting of the
Standing Committee of the Board at Nanking.
We regret to have
to report that the present situation with regard to the powers and authority of the Board of Trustees and the question of an endowment fund can only be described as profoundly disturbing
and unsatisfactory.
To make our position clear it is necessary to go
back to the events that followed the passing of the China
Indemnity (Application) Act of 1925.
A statutory Committee was appointed under that
Act to advise the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs re- garding the allocation of the outstanding portion of the WWW
"Boxer" indemnity which Great Britain had decided, in 1922, to
remit to China for purposes mutually beneficial to the two
countries.
This statutory (or advisory) Committee (the chair-
men of which was the Earl Buxton) decide, early in 1926, to
send a delegation of its members to China to ascertain Chinese opinion on the various matters under consideration, to investigate
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