/Mr. McNeil''s Accurate Estimat fe; The Resalt of Unsettled Government: and Public Discontent Skillfully Acted on by Makers of Anarchy Londos,, Jone 11.
The number of questions lodged in the House of Commons raga the Shanghai affair to-day, elicited long replies from Mr. Ronald Me-Neill, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affaire, who expressed the opinion that the origin of the trouble-was mainly due to unsettled contions owing to the lack of a strong Central Government, to destructive war and to the irritation of Chinese with petty local rulers, resulting in discontent, which had been skil-folly directed by interested persons Hau 9633 inst the foreigner, whose treaty rights they represented as being inimieal to the well being of Chi Mr, McNeill added that for tome time past the British Government had closely given attention to the question whether industrial condi-were playing an appreciable in the general widespread unim hina. He expressed the pinion that such conditions hardly operated st all as the cause of the Present troubles, though any such discontent as far ax it existed 1 should be welcomed as a symptom of a desire for be: ter things.
Mr. MeNeill pointed out that the strike begun at a Japanese cotton mill, where conditions were equal or superior to anything in China. He declared that 4 British Government had long been exerting active pressure on the international outhorities at Shanghai to secure improved factory conditions in the for-Ggn- settlement, especially as regards child labour, with the aim of making the settlement a model for the rest of China, It was now intended to seek a solution of the difficulties in a conciliatory spirit, while insisting on the maintenance of law and order in the foreign set-
Finally Mr, McNeill stated that warning had been given before the Koliee fired, but he was without official information as to the precise nature of the warning. He also did not know the number of students arrested and subsequently released but had requested a report on the jer—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.