CO129-538-1 Hong Kong University 31-12-1931 - 6-8-1932 — Page 218

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Government as their ultimate source of authority.

We are therefore strongly of opinion that no

sufficient reason has been adduced for the change of policy

which dictated the settlement defined in the Exchange of

Notes and the Act of 1931; that the British Government

should have adhered to their statement of May, 1926, in

which they expressed their concurrence in the Willingdon

recommendations and promised to secure the necessary legis-

lative authority to give effect to them; and that such materi-

al advantages as Great Britain may have secured through the

spending of the indemnity money in British factories will be

far outweighed by the losses to both Great Britain and China -

grave losses of a material and economic as well as of a loss

tangible kind which the drastic modification or abandonment

of the measures proposed and agreed to in 1926 is only too

likely to involve.

As far as we could ascertain during our tour

in China, no admiration or appreciation has been felt or ex-

pressed by the Chinese people or by any section of them, with regrd to the manner in which Great Britain has chosen to

solve the long-outstanding problem of the remitted indemnity.

had We have eight years in which to find a solution it was as long ago as 1922 that we announced our intention of remitting

the debt

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and surely in that time it should not have over-

taxed the ingenuity of British statesmanship to find a solu- tion of which we and our descendants might have been proud, and for which the people of China would have given us more than the perfunctory thanks of diplomatic usage. The settlement embodied in the Exchange of Notes of 1930 may have given satis- faction to a few persons who at that time occupied responsible posts in the Chinese Government.

Those men have already ceased

to hold office, and it would be difficult to find any others who shared or now share their satisfaction, except those who derive personal advantage from the transactions of the Purchas- ing Commission or from the application of a portion of the funds