With these instructions before them the work of the Commissioners divided itself under two headings; the first was to secure the betterment of commercial facilities, througl{ the measures which I have enumerated above, and which could be done by Anglo-Chinese agreement, and secondly to secure likin abolition, which in consequence of the drastic measures involved, could only be made operative policy adozied I have endeavoured to through international agreement. "The explain in a recent letter in_tho Press. The much-discussed Article VIII is in reality a Treaty within a Treaty. If the a whole is ratified by Great Britain, it comes, as far as Great Britain jis concerned, into operation at once—all but Article VILL which has to wait for the concurrence of the other Treaty Powers. I would remark that the whole of the criticism that has been applied to the Treaty has practically been in connection with this Article VIII—by far the most important Article, I admit, but one to be considered apart from the nther Articles. Now let mo take up this Article. Its whole object is to carry out the policy of the Association, as pressed upon the Government, for the abolition of likin; in the criticisms that have been passed in certain quarters I find no word of appreciation of the enormous difficulties which faced the Commissioners in dealing with so complicated a question—difficulties which are tacitly, though it may be unconsciously, recognised in the fact that the whole of the adverse criticism has been of a destructive nature, without one single attempt at a policy of construction in. connection with the removal of an admitted curse upon trade in China, and one which has been the subject of your and your predecessors! objurgation forty years and more. Destructive criticism is easy and for the most part useless; of constructive criticism there has been none.
One main criticism of the Article is that likin can never be abolished, so there is no use trying; surely a poor argument this, and one which those who advance it might more appropriately have urged at an earlier stage. If it is no use negotiate ing with the Chinese Government, why has there been so long an outery for revision of the Treaties? And if it is of use negotiating with China, such nogotiations can only be based on a supposition of good faith on both sides; we may admit our doubts of China's good faith, but negotiations can only be conducted on the presumption that good faith is existent, leaving it to other forces to compel that good faith in the carrying out of the engagements to which it stands committed. "Another idea that seems to figure largely in the public mind is that the Treaty should have been one of dictation rather than negotiation; that view of the situation might possibly have been considered in the framing of the Protocol, but it can have no place in the negotiations which the Protocol instructed.
I warned you, gentlemen, that T would probably be tedious, but in view of the importance of this meeting I am going to ask you to bear with me while I take up the more salient points of article VIII. Article aro:—The points principally attacked in the
(1) The Surtax.
(2) The Consumption Tax.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.