Nov. 9.
We should be glad to share the optimism of the American delegate to the Tariff Revision Conference now sitting in Peking. The task set before the Conference was the abolition of the unequal treaties which have become a source of irritation to the Chinese people and the restoration of atmosphere of harmony and mutual trust. The whole world is suffering now, as it has often suffered in the past, from the suspicion with which different nationalities regard each other. It would be worth paying a big price to get rid of misunderstanding and put in its place a feeling of reciprocal confidence and respect. How does the Conference propose to get rid of the oppressive unequal treaties? It proposes to accomplish this feat iby negotiating another unequal treaty. It says to the Chinese abolish likin, we will cancel Government if you will the treaties to which you object and coneede- your request for absolute tariff autonomy." But this also is unequal because if [China is to be treated as a sovereign State, on a basis of complete equality with the Powers represented at the Conference, she has an indefeasible right to tariff autonomy without consulting anybody or making any promises of any kind. In the very act of abolishing, the unequal treaties the delegates to the Conference justify the statesmen who -negotiated and, hine ile la crime, veniently known as likin. con-those treaties, some 70-or more years ago, to which "objection The remedy proposed by Sir is: now taken. Thoss men' as Francis Aglea is apparently] sumed \-that '>the: conttactixig'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.