We desire peace. We have no interest in China except to pursue the peaceful occupations of trade without injury to Chinese liberties or to any. Chinese interests. We cherish no territorial ambitions, we don't want to obtain another inch of Chinese soil, we seek nothing but such security as will enable our traders to pursue in safety their lawful and their peaceful avocations. (Applause.) We have, therefore, in spite of all provocation, in spite of all the difficulties, abstained from interference in the internal struggles of China or from taking. sides cither with one party oF another in the various—conflicts which have been or are being waged. This policy was set out in the memorandum which his Ma-
Jesty's Government communicated to the Washington Treaty Powers in December, 1926, and you must allow me to quote some words from "His Majesty's Government,"I said in that memorandum, "propose that the Powers should make that Min their constructive policy they desire to go as far as possible towards meeting the legitimate aspirations of the Chinese nation, that they should abandon the idea that the economic and political development of China can only be secured under foreign tutelage and should declare their readiness to recognize her right to the enjoyment of tariff autonomy as soon as she herself has settled and promulgated anew national tariff. They should expressly disclaim any intention of forcing foreign control upon an While calling upon China to maintain that respect for the sanctity of treaties which is the primary obligation common to all civilised States, the Powers should yet organize both the essential Justice of the Chinese claim for' treaty revision and the difficulty under present conditions of negotiate ing new treaties in place of the old, and they should therefore modify their traditional attitude of rigid insistence on the strict letter of treaty rights."
THRE policy was further defined by an offer of treaty modifications which was communicated to the Chinese authorities both in the north and south tu the succeeding month, January, 1927. This offer has been actually carried into practice by us in regard to the concessions both at Hankow and Kiukiang. I wish I could tell you that that most generous advance, that proof that we desire to adjust our old treaty rights to the new aspirations and the new conditions of China had met with a greater success than I can pretend it has, We stand by that policy of peaceful conciliation. We cannot, permit ourselves to be deprived by. forceful action of our treaty rights, but we are ready at any moment in a generous spirit to negotiate with anyone who can speak for the Chinese people, who can take engagoments in their name and fulfil the engagements which they have taken in order to adjust the old treaties to the new position and to give generous satisfaction to the logitimate demands of the Chinese for the development of their nationality and their independence. (Applause.)
An Appeal to Patriots If my words—and in my present position my words sometimes travel far—if my words reach China this an appeal which I make to patriotic: Chinese. I repeat that we have no aggressive intentions in China, we have no territorial ambitions, we desire no extension of the British, Empire, we are ready to negotiate as soon as they confront us with an authority which can negotiate for the amendment of the old treaties special rights and privileges which under those treaties we enjoy in China. How far we can go, how fast we can go when we begin, depends not upon the goodwill of the British Government or of the British people, which is ready and waiting, but on the response which China will make to the appeal that we make to them to justify their national aspirations by pursuing their purposes by those methods of peaceful and friendly negotiation which are customary amongst civilised nations, (Applause.)
Teannot leave China without saying a word about the British communities in that country. No one can have the knowledge that I necossarily have of the injury which-has eon caused of the unmerited suffering they have endured, of the danger and in some cases the actual loss of life which has been incurred and not feel the profoundest sympathy for their sufferings and not understand how difficul for them to be patient as we may be patient at, home. But their object and purpose in the long run must be the same as our own, for their interests are the only interests we have at heart' Their interests are to live on terms, of peace and friendship and confidence with the great Chinese nation among whom they are settled, and T hope that they, and particularly' the British Press' in China, will do their share in bringing home to the Chinese people the goodwill entertained for China not merely by his Majesty's Government but by all our' countrymen, and the desire that we all have to do them justice and live in peace and friendship with them,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.