"Finally, the group with which we negotiate in Peking is utterly Powerless to guarantee us any sort of a quid pro quo. To whatever concessions we pledge ourselves Public opinion throughout the world will hold us. The Chinese—ean default on anything, plead incapacity, and corn the indulgence of the whole world. What is the use of exacting so-called guaranteea which the Chinese know are worthless and which those Powers which do not know it now will soon discover to be worthless? want likin, destination taxes and consumption taxes on foreign imports abolished in exchange for tariff increases. Peking is the least able at this moment of half-a-dozen administrations in China to guarantee us such reforms, even over a limited area. The official clique with which we are negotiate ing has not been able to prevent the imposition of an illegal tobacco tax in the city of Peking itself, collected by a military chief under the noses of the foreign delegates! The bankers, representing unsecured investments in China, want funding loan. The Chinese' agree to it in principle, but what—security is there in China upon which mew paper could be issued ithout swindling the—inva public abroad? Everyone eased Customs surplus—good enough in immediate prospect perhaps, but "by no means good enough, in view of the present temper of the Chinese official military castes and the gr: indifference to treaty obligations, to secure a throughout period of amortization that must] extend to 30 or 40 The gates ther represented, they] represented anything, as a kind of reparations conference, at which the foreign delegates were to. make atonement for the sins of—their istic governments. It was a confession of the defeat of the great Powers of the Occident and of the success of agitation and] boycott engineered by Russian pa; masters, ignorant school boys and hired ruffians. It was a triumphal Pageant, graced by a parade—of submissive foreign __potentates, staged by the friends of the Soviet for the education of the Chinese masses, tions of inviolability with—whieh is surrounded and in larger part to the personality of one man, the Inspector-General, who is not immortal and who certainly not-be at the head of this service!
20 or even 10 years hence. Then what?"
What We all Knew Strictly speaking, the above paragraphs do not constitute an interview with anyone. They are a digest of the fruits of several interviews with persons very vitally interested in the outcome of - the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.