PART VI - Principles adopted by the Delegation and General Recommendations

• Author: Chamberlam, Austen
• Pages: 104

PART VI -PRINCIPLES ADOPTED BY THE DELEGATION AND GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Though the general princples which were finally adopted by the delegation, and the advice and recommendations based on those principles, which it decided to offer to the Statutory Committee, are few and simple m character, this does not mean that the task of arriving at these decisions was a bght or simple one. Recommendations as to how the Indemnity fund should be disposed of poured m upon the delegation in great numbers from all parts of China, and m smaller quantities from other parts of the world as well, and during its sojourn m Cihma hardly a day passed m which individuals, or representatives of mutftions or orgamstions, did not seek to convince them that the particlar schemes and proposals which they sponsored, wer the h wisest, the most advantageous, and altogether the most desirable that could be devised

A very brief account of a small number of the various plans and recomendations that were put forward must suffice foi the purposes of this report, if it is not to be swollen to unwieldy dimensions One suggestion, which would have sunplified the task of the delegates very much, had they seen their way to adopt it, was that the whole of the existng fund, together with all future instalments of principal and interest, should be deposited i the bank and allowed to accumulate until China possessed a stable Government and that, when that happy day arrived, the whole amount should be handed over absolutely and unconditionally, to that fortunate Government's accredited representatives This proposal, which was endorsed by at least one of China's veteran statesmen, was rejected by the delegation for the same reasons that induced the British Chamber of Commerce at Peking to reject it when it was suggested to them The chamber pointed out that, however deplorable present conditions might be, they did not prevent the carrying out of various enterprises which were undoubtedly of great benefit to the people In various parts of the country, for example, Conservancy Boards existed, which included foreign representatives and had the help of foreign engineers Moreover, there was one orgamsatlon-the China International Famine Relief Commission -which was actively engaged in such work as the building of dykes and roads, and to which funds for these and similar purposes could be entrusted with every confidence that they would be properly used To these considerations the delegation would add the followmg If the funds were to be withheld on the ground that China was m a state of chaos and that the Government was unstable, it was more than probable that those whose delight it seemed to be to misrepresent the actions and intentions of Great Britain would make it their business to suggest that the British Government did not intend to return the money to China at all, as it could always excuse itself from doing so by declaring that China was still in a state of disorder In a country of the great size of China there are always sure to be local disturbances somewhere, and these could be pointed to by Great Britain as evidence of the truth of her contention Moreover, no Government likes to be told by another Government that it is unstable, and if Great Britain were to draw the world's attention to this...