To the Editor of the "Nonrh-Caiwa Datty News"
Sm—May I, with all necessary respect, point out that your comments in Thursday's paper upon the revised version of the'"Swatow Case" did not touch the real issue.
When the facts were first. published and it was made apparent that the Consul at Swatow had advised an illegally arrested British subject to pay $50 or $100 blackmail in order to secure his liberty, your immediate reaction was "How shocking. This matter must be investi. gated and, if found necessary, ste must be taken against the Coniul.
Those, Sir, were very natural and admirable sentiments, worthy of any right-minded British subject and thoroughly in accord with the traditions maintained by the "North China Daily News." But it seemed to me that in all the circumstances you were doing an injustice to the individual Consul concerned and in the words of the popular song, formerly sung by Miss Connie Ediss, por "I thought it my duty to say so.
In my first letter I argued that was entirely wrong to saddle an individual official with the responsibility for an unfortunate situation created, not by inactivity on Part, but by the lack of support given to him by the British Government. There is a distinct tendency in this direction among British relents in China to-day. If anything goes wrong it is the rale, rather than the exception, to blame the British official concerned. We do not stop to consider that in all probability he is chafing at his own impotence and sick at heart over his lack of authority and loss of presige. A Consul, of course, has no more power than a private member: of the community i* he cannot rely. upon the backing of his Foreign Office.
You, Sir, were good enough to ig take notice of my argument.
You announced: that you were cabling to Swatow for further details "éf the case under discussion and stated that you would willingly apologize to the Swatow Consul if it were found that he had been criticised unjustly.
These further details have now been received from Swatow and as far as I can see they do not differ one jot or tittle from the original story. You proffer a handsome apology to Mr. Major and apparent ly regard the incident as closed.
Quite frankly, T do not follow T am glad you re-inal British off cials should not be blained' for the failure of British policy. That is something to the good. But the blatant facts of this "Swatow Case" remain unchallenged.
A British Consul was foreed to advise a British subject to pay blackmail to escape imprisonment, without trial, in a Chinese gaol. The Consul's hands were tied because he could not afford to create an "unpleasant incident." He was rot to blame. But what have Peking and the British Foreign Office should we not face And we are certainly not facing them if we regard an apology. to the Consul as closing the matter?
Naturally, I dismiss as irrelevant and unimportant the somewhat eryptie references to the social amenities of the small port of Swatow. If the suggestion is that the British subject arrested was a person of social importance and that consequently he is not worth while trouble ing about, I should be.inelined to took with loathing on the British flag. A British subject is a British subject whether he is white, black jor half and half. I have never heard that the British Government! has ever failed to protect even a poor refugee alien in London on the ground that he was a person of no importance.
The whole question is simply. whether our policy in China is one of principle or expediency. That the matter which needs clearing s0 that we may know where we stand.
Tam, ete,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.