CO129-538-1 Hong Kong University 31-12-1931 - 6-8-1932 — Page 217

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

-22-

324

a matter of fact it provided that "control in the last resort would still remain with His Majesty's Government". If it did, it was not the bill which the acceptance of the Willingdon recommendations required;

if it did not, it is difficult to

see what Mr Arthur Henderson meant when he declared that under the Willingdon proposals "although the organisation and admini- stration of the funds would be carried out in China, the con- tra in the last resort would still remain with His Majesty's Government."

It can hardly be seriously contended that the Willingdon proposals were supposed to be humiliating to China because they provided for the handing over of the funds to a Board of Trustees instead of to the Chinese Government itself. The Board was to sit and exercise all its functions in China, it was to consist of members of whom a majority would be Chinese from the beginning and who in a few years YWWWWWW

be, time were to holly Chinese if the Chinese majority so desired, and it was to be entirely independent of Government control, whether British or Chinese. There could be nothing derogatory to Chinese dignity in handing trust-funds over to the control and administration of a body of trustees, especially a body that was to be appointed in the first instance by the Chinese Government itself and afterwards to fill vacancies by co-opta- tion. As far as we are aware no complaint whatever has been uttered by the Chinese Government with regard to the control and administration of the American indemnity funds by the body of trustees who hold office under the "China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture". No doubt China would have felt insulted if it had been provided that the trustees were to be subject to the authority of a foreign Government; but in spite of Mr Arthur Henderson's statement about ultimate control still remaining with the British Government, it was never for a moment suggested or intended by the members of Lord Willingdon's delegation or by Lord Buxton's Advisory Com- mittee that the Board of Trustees should look to the British

Comments

Approved members can add comments, bookmarks, and private notes.

No comments yet.

Private Research Note

Private notes are available after approval.