The feding among foreigners here towards the individual French merchant interested. in. the aero~ plane traffic or the individual French Legation official who patronizes. i, ard our attitude towards—the French Legation, as the arm of the French Government in China, very different indeed. "The French Government is bound by an agreement from which st can withdraw if it finds that. this agreement no longer serves the purpose for which "was designed; but meanwhile none of us can see that it is good iplomatie practice to break an international agreement without reference to the other parties, no fatter how frankly and openly it broken, When we are all 10 far from home, ina land where of? conduct is' subject to close and suspicious surveillance, we do not {ke to have our friends do things that we cannot be proud of. We sare regarded herd.as one breed, and the conduct of any one of us shapes the Chinese attitude towards all of When "Moh Nea Dsu" hints that we are jealous of France's aeroplane trafic, he is being absurd; we are simply solicitous Zor the Occidental's good name.
The Arms Embargo Agreement, have already said, was loosely written because it was' a self-deny-1 ordinance, founded upon a moral principle, into which all entered voluntary; so there was son to suppose that any party would attempt to evade the spirit it who had once willingly signed been evasions of the spirit of the document, no matter what inter pretation' is put upon the written text, We cannot be proud of suck evasions of the spirit of an inter national agreement, no matter what nationality is responsible for thorny and we deplore them particularly, la. China where we ought to be des monstrating to these irresponsible. ments deal, what good faith: in the, means, execution of written pledges really:
There is another feature in the situation Which this officially" xecognized aeroplane business creates that we do not like,. but which. may not possibly be'so clear to, those who are unfamiliar with the workings of diplomacy in Peking. Tt undermines" French "prestige, [therefore foreign prestige generally, Tt militates against the security of the individual Frenchman and there~ fore, indirectly, against the security of all Occidentals in this. country. Leg: out to How? Let me explain. When
foster "big business" of any kind with a Chinese official, or a group of officials, its chief concern is the cultivation of.the good will lof the officials concerned and port this the Legation concentrates. With the big objective in sight, the lesser affairs of the small fry are not allowed to conflict with it, If the American Legation, let us say, sets seriously to work to help an American corporation acquire mine ing rights in Kiangsu, it is much interested in winning the good will and friendly consideration of Gene feral Sun Ch'uan-fang; and nothing is allowed to happen which might cultivate in the Tupan's bosom a prejudice acaim against a Nanking shop in which the Tapan was interested for a few hundred dollars worth of merchandi claim would be timidly by the American authorities and if the Tupan frowned upon it, it could wait. If Mr. Amos Binks, tourist, were run over by the Tue an's car and seriously injured, the American authorities would take up the case with the fixed presumption. that Mr. Binks stupidly got in the way and caused the Tupan much Jannoyance and some physical dis comfort by letting himself be run over. Not only the Tupan but 10,000 other Chinese with some knowledge of the case would get the impression that when a foreigner Jand a high Chinese militarist collide, {the foreigner is inevitably wrong, Alli Legation patronage of "big business" works to this same end—the steady decline of the security:
the individual foreigner China, Naturally we do not like it, When Chinese Officials Offend Again, if some Tuchun, or high civil official agent of a° Tuchan, agrantly violates a treaty embed: ing rights to which we are parties, the only way to make di Tomatic action impressive in this era, is to get unanimous diplomatic und this patronage of "big one of the things th invariably locks sucht action, Suppose the Tupan of Hupeh to be a flagrant. sinner against foreign treaty rights and the Ministers of the nationalities most affected by the outrages. try, to round up the Corps Diplomatique and get everyone's signature to a. protest and ultimatum. All goes smoothly and the majority of the diplomats are enthusiastic about checking this militarist in his nefarious career, until it is disco. lvered by the Bessarabian Plenipo tertiary that a corporation of his nationals have a flourishing soap factory in Wuchang which making big profits by virtue of the Tupan's good will and patronage. The Liberian Minister at the same time is reminded by the diplomatic agents of a Liberian firm in Pee king that they are about to close contract with the Hupeh Tupan for 1,000 tons of copper to be used in the mint—a deal that will certainly, not be closed if the Liberian 'Minister joins in the issue of ultimatum. Then a Rue athenian subject turns up at his Legation, announces thet he is, adviser to the Tupan of Hupeh—adviser on foreign affairs perhaps—Jand states that while he has not een able to draw his' salary for 13 months he has contrived to win all manner of concessions and spejelal favours for Ruthehian mer
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.