Big Basiness Under Legation Patronage To the Editor of the "NowrH. Cuiwa Dany News" sin,—I note that in your issue of July "28, a gentleman who signs himself "Moh Rita Dou," presumably of French nationality, writes take strong exception to refer ences which I' made in a previous jane, to M. Daisy, the distinguished aviator, and to the French aeroplane business in China. I aston to reply because I think that "Moh Rita Dsu" does not speak English og his native tongue and may poss bly have misconstrued Tpit of tronyy Thad not" the what P had fo say of M. Daisy in
Bightest intention of" saying vggesting anything derogatory to the Prench aviator, In fying. from Paris to Peking in 60-odd hours, overcoming serious obstacles some points on the way, he accomplished feat which entitles him to the ardent and unqualified admiration of every person, of whatsoever nationality, who has any respect for courage and skill in carrying "out high adventure. T should be Very' much ashamed of myself if T were to tay or write anything that! east a slur upon M. Daisy or detracted in the slightest degree from his well deserved fame. All of us rejoice the more in his achievement and are the prender of him because We have 0 little else to be proud of in this part of the world just now.
I hope that "Moh Rita Dsu" and other French readers of the "North China Daily News" will believe me when I assure them that T was not trying to take an underhanded dig at M, Daisy in my reference to him. "They would be eorveet, how-fever, in assuming that T am critical of the French Legation for pat~ Yonising the sale of aeroplanes to the Chinese militarists and that 1 meant to express the foreign com munity's disapproval of this traiie in my reference to it, They would be incorrect "and unfair, However, if they assumed that I should not move voleed this disapproval had it been the American or the British any other Legation that 1 conceived to be at fault, If the American Legation were indirectly party. to the import and sale of anything to the Chinese military leaders which they could uve to promote seater misery for the wretched people of this country, the "North-China Daily News" readers would have heard about it long ago and have known my opinion. of such trae very clearly, I do- not. approve of the ale of engines of destruction to the leaders of any Chinese faction by, anyone of any nationality and T am ture that most of the French residents in this distracted country share my sentiments, "I -do not ap. prove "of the French sale of aeroplanes to the various milita lets, T do not like to hear that No wesians are helping Chang Tso-lin make high explosives, T donot tike to know that a British. munitions expert is, the master technician in the Mokden arsenal and that: German chemists help the Kuominehin make land mines, while German engineers have tried to. build. aeroplanes. for Yen Hsi-shan, I know that there are Curtis aeroplanes in South China, which must have got there from America foniehov, and if T thought that my Government in any way facilitated the sale of there planes I should have a great deal to say. about. it which my Legation could resent or not 1 am annoyed to hear now that 'American amis are somehow reach. ang Vladivostok and are being re-exported from. Siberia to South China. "I happen to know that with this my Government has nothing to lo, but if T thought that they wink ed' at it and let it go-on when they might check it, T should be in great haste to say what I thought of th Bade in print. I don't believe in 'Sing country right or wrong." "Believe in my country "ight and 1 when it ien'e"vight" I believe it my tity as an American, whose forefathers went through' a. good deal danger and hardship for certain Sefinite ideals, to advertise the fact that my country is wrong through every possible medium.
This may or may not coincide with the French definition vf patriotism, but I am sure that there are Prench readers of this paper who will agree that T have demonstrated that it agrees, with my definition of patriotism. In the light of much that T have to)
of American policy in China sure that your French rea:
admit that "Moh Rita Dsu" is really unfair when he says thet I critical of everything and everybody of a nationality. other sure that Legation that was fostering the aeroplane trade instead of ithe French I should not have wait-fed for months and years to say what I am going to say now of the aeroplane traffic and that I should vot be so dispassionate about it. precious sovereign rights to have taken action against the sinners. I }do not think that any Britisher or American, official or otherwise, has ever attempted to argue that these were not walations of the inter national agreement, but I do thi that all other nationals must admit, that these lapses from grace, i ftentional or. otherwise, have been atoned for by as rigid a limitation upon further imports as the state lof our laws and the police facilities at-our command could possibly give us. I am sure that both American and British jurists could cite cases in which we have stretched the La and done what woo technically injustice to arms importers to prove that we were seriously determined to curb the import of arms and materials for the manufacture of The Arms Embargo In the Spring of 1919 the Arms Embargo agreement went into force virtue of a document in which this is d clause:
"The Governments of Great Britain, Spain, Portugual, the United States, Russia, Brazil, France, and Japan, hi re agreed effectually to rostral in their sub-Jects and citizens from exporting, to or importing into China arms cases are well extablished were at least technically covered by the reservations attach-ato their wgnature of the Embargo Agreement. The Norwegian fand. German Governments "never signed at all so are bound by the conacientions scruples of individuals only. Tt is only fair to say that the German Legation has flatly refused, during the past year, to interfere in a number of cases where Germans were imprisoned by and munitions of war and *-ithe Chinese authorities and grossly fal destined exclusively for the abused because the individuals con-manufacture until the establishment of 2 Government whose] cerned appeared to be indirectly and remotely concerned with arms authowty is recognized through-deals. The German official attitude out the whole country and also to has been: "No help for an arms]
prohibit during the above period th livery dealer;" and, since the Germans in arms and munitions for whi China' have no extraterritorial contracts have already been made but not execut-this means that any German, who meddles with arms has to take This agreement was subsequently Chinese justice without a squeal The Germans who sre in the arms endorsed by the Netherlands, Den-game are therefore in it as] mark and Belgium without rosery tions, and by Italy with rosery individuals, at their own risk, tion that are well known and have Now what I am leading up to is since given the Italian Government is: The French entered upon the! much unfavourable advertising. The aeroplane business in China after it text does not go into definitions of had been simply demonstrated that "arms and munitions of war" for the Chinese military folk who the simple if good bought them had no serious inten-faith wore taken for granted, uch tion of using them for commercial definitions would have been purposes and after it was equally fluous, Everyone knows what £7, clear that in Chinese warfare a flyedly weapon is and what can be ing machine of any type—even a used for its exclusive manufacture.
Handley-Page passenger bus—weo spirit of the text was supposed much a weapon as a field piece to rule, no one was supposed to or a hand grenade. They did not dodge the letter of text by, enter the business seriously until quibbling about fine distinctions be-Peking had abandoned the pretence tween deadly this purpose or that purpose, mapaus designed €0F) it partment, when the only porch of having a commercial aeronautics
admitted at the outset that it ers became the provincial militarists immoral to give the Chinese who bought planes quite frankly for tools of slaughter until they had a their armies and were using them real Government and it was taken freely and conspicuously in. their. for granted that no Government wars. The French dealers did not which recognized this go into the field as individual ad-would attempt to evade the general Yenturers, defying their Government, terms of the agreement by bringing, and assuming all the risks. They} in battle axes and calling them extended generous credits and their meat choppers. cole contracts were registered with Yet within te than a year of the French Legation, ju signing of thi contract several big sale of telegraph of railway supish contracts had been plies to the Peking Government, 50 the Chinese authorities for the deals were actually made under} the import of aeroplanes "for Legation patronage and protection, commercial purposes."
One cannot, During the past three years about: 150 planes were sold to the various say that the clause "for commercial purposes" militarists. The majority were 18 accepted by the British authorities in bad faith, but in bought by Chang Tso-lin—Breguet, view of the fact that the Arms Caudron, and lately 40 Schreck Embargo Agreement was drawn up famous French!
distin flier, M. Poulet, well known, recognition of China's before the "war cle en endurance ponsibility, the British auth-tier, is high adviser on aviation to cities cannot be absolved altogether: on the plea that the Chinese Chang Tso-lin. In Tsinanfu, Shan-that the aeroplanes were tung, General Chang Chung-ch'ang be used for commercial purposes. to] is building what will probabl be Aeroplanes continued to be deliver-Jed in fact after all there already in commission had been devoted purely military purposes en the Spring of 1920, This was not in. keeping with the spirit of the Arms Embargo Agreement and was there. fore @ precedent bad faith.
Ju the early Si ig of 1921 an American firm, domiciled in Hongkong, imported into Canton a whole shipload of arsenal machinery, aeroplanes and, according to popu-lay report, munitions of war. The writer was semi-officially attached to sin American party that went South to collect evidence which would enable the American Government to bring this American firm into court. The obstacles in the way of collecting nee acceptable to a court were insuperable. snd while we, had the satisfaction of ig the evaders of the law a the biggest aerodrome in China and. has purchased as the nucleus of his fleet six Potez-Anzini machines. His advi is is the Comte clu Boigne.
jan of Yunnan, General Tang Ctv-yao has about 10 Caudron and Breguet machines, bought from French agents. A French Captain on active service acts, oF did recently act, as his aviation adviser and two French pilots are employed instructors. General Sun Chruan-fang's little fleet at Nan-consists of French planes captured from the Fengtien armies, Kiangsu last October and November.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.