Nov. 30.
Wuar purported to be a digest lof the report of the Commission ito Investigate the Abolition of /Extraterritoriality was sent to ithe newspapers yesterday by Reuter's and was published. The/ statement is perhaps Dr. Welington Koo's last laugh before resigning from his regency, visional presidency and ministry jof foreign affairs in Peking, whatever may be the offices he has held. For the statement was entirely calculated to give the Chinese people the wrong impression, The report apparently consists of four parts. Three have been suppressed and the fourth has been exceedingly loosely digested. According to ithe general arrangements under the Washington Treatie:, documents in connexion with' them fare filed with the State Department of the United States. It [was understood that the State Department would make the report public simultaneously in Washington and Peking, not a digest of the report or a camouflaged statement, but the whole report duly signed and sealed. It was also understood that the Waichiaopu was opposed to such publication at this time, particularly as its representatives had signed the report. The document which came to hand yesterday then was given out by a Cabinet Jabout to resign, perhaps simu. Itaneously with the handing in lof the resignation, for the purpose of spoiling the news when the full report appears. It was 1 lovely journalistic trick ealculated to deceive the uninitiated.
No one will pay the slightest attention to the document thus! published and Reuters might Ihave saved the expense of telegraphing it, for even accepting ithe digest of part four, everyone will want to know the contents lof the other three parts. The mere statement that there are three more parts whets the appetite for them, for although! most of us would like to seo China in a fit condition to have extraterritoriality abolished, just 8 we should like to see China one of the premier Powers on earth, we know that instead of conditions being improved during the years of the Republic, they have become exceedingly worse. How could the Commis sioners favour the abolition of extraterritoriality when they] were not even permitted to travel freely in the country? The provinces under the control of the Kuomintang and the Kuominchun asked them to stay away. Dr. C. C, Wu telegraphed to Dr, Wang Chung-hui telling him not to bring the Commissioners to Canton. The Kuominchun would not permit them to enter the provinces under their control. They were shown how difficult it must be for any foreigner do business or to travel or to live as a man would live in any] other country, outside of the foreign concessions and a few friendly cities. The Commissioners sat in Peking while that city was being bombarded Fengtien aeroplanes. They witnessed the ravages of civil war. They were in China for the good part of a year and saw China at its worst, for the year 1925-6 will not soon be forgotten. How could such Commissioners recommend anything but a continuation of the present system until the day arrives when the [Chinese people have awakened to the necessity of a decent and responsible Government?
One is sorry for Dr. Wang! Chung-wel, He has worked hard codifying China's laws and modernizing China's courts. If any man deserved commendation for constructive service to. China, it is Dr. Wang. He has laboured for the day when an international commission would come to!
(China to see his work and proclaim it well done. But Dr.
Wang must admit that his work has not been hampered by foreigners but by his own countrymen, by Peking politicians and arrogant, militarists, who have usurped the power of the courts and have governed outside the law. Dr. Wang disappoints only in this: it is surprising to find a man of his calibre serving in a Government which is the tool of militarism and which resorts to such petty trickery as the pub-pro- ication of the mendacious report, to which this leader refers.
From Dr. Wang more would be expected, for he is a jurist and not a politician. One would imagine that he would-stand before the people and tell the truth, that be would pronounce judgment on the defects of the nation and appeal to the people to correct the evils which have brought upon his country international: opprobrium, But Dr. Wang has not done so. In a sorry reservation, he ignores everything real and speaks much as Dr. Wellington Koo or Mr. Chu Chao-hsin might speak, entirely for propagandistic consumption, From a man of Dr.
eminence and character is deplorable.
And now that the Cabinet ha: resigned and that Dr. Koo has permitted his sense of humour to run his sense-of decency, it is time for the American Legation to issue the full report, every word of it, that Chinese and foreigners alike may know the full truth. It does not at all matter, of course, what we think about the report as the Powers have had it for some time and have already made their decisions thereon. But we ought to know, we who live in China, what our Commissioners found,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.