Chungking, June 13.
The body of Mr. Bourdrez, Dutch water conservancy expert, who was drowned in the (Kingshakiang River on May 11, has been recovered, and was brought to Kunming on June 9, according to an official statement published today, The statement declares that Mr, Bourdrez, accompanied by Mr. Hu Yun-chow, official of the South-west Transportation Bureau, left Kunming on April 22 by road for Kingkiangkal, the upper reaches of the Kingshaklang River.
From here, they sailed down river in a junk to explore the navigation possibilities of this treacherous river. When the junk reached Laochuntung, in the Chiaochiahsien District, it capsized, Alt aboard were thrown into the river, and all were drowned, with the exception of the junkman, The Chinese authorities immediately instituted a search for the missing men, and also offered a reward of $1,000 for each person found dead or alive.
in the earlier stages of the trip, Mr. Bourdrez, in private correspondence to friends, revealed that he had nearly lost his life on several occasions, the trip, he said, being "parttcularly dangerous."
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to petition the Government for official recognition of Mr. Bourdrez' services, The Chinese press this morning. highly praised Mr. Bourdrez' loyalty to his duties, and mourned the loss of a "man' who represented cooperative efforts between peoples."—Reuter, Force to Be Met by Force Says Foreign Secretary (Continued from page 7) at home and abroad to face the realities of the situation.
He said there were two things in Britain's policy he wanted to make plain.
The first was that, while making no threats, and while concealing no ulterior designs, they wanted to make it quite clear to the world that if force were used, those who used it must count upon force being met by force.
Secondly, they wished to make it clear that if there were no attempt of intention to resort to force, then the whole influence of Britain, which was not negligible, would be rightly thrown on the side of reaching a fair settlement by negotiation.
"I should be well content," Lord Halifax concluded, "if I thought that this debate had had the effect of focussing the attention of all whom it might reach upon the incalculable advantage of exchanging threatening, dangerous and sinister methods of arbitrary, force for efforts of negotiation and British Interests to Be Defended (Continued from page 7)
"I should be glad if Lord Halifax would give us an assurance not only that he is sympathetic to China—t think everybody in the House is sympathetic—but that he recognizes we ought to do everything possible to assist China to drive back the Japanese invasion from her shores."
Lord Davies, who is closely associated with the work of the League of Nations Union, said that "mere declarations of sympathy to China are cheap. A small loan and allowing China to import -munitions are creditable, but Lord Halifax should have taken the lead in responding to the eloquent appeal of Dr. Welington Koo, chief Chinese delegate to the League of Nations, at Geneva.
"The present British policy has destroyed the British Empire's reputation for justice and fair play.
In the course of his reply, Lord Halifax said it was quite true that, in the Far Eastern arena, "we are witnessing a conflict of the' principles involving the whole question of the right to resort to war."
Lord Halifax Replies In these circumstances, he continued, during the last two years it had been the duty of His Majesty's Government to consider what course of action was incumbent on them and practical for them to adopt:
They had been parties to the passage of successive resolutions by the Assembly of the League of Nations, which, "I am well aware, have not gone as far as the representatives of China have thought desirable, but they have gone as far as the Powers principally concerned have thought it practical to go.
"I am quite content to leave the conduct of this country on that matter to the judgment of those having full knowledge, and able to form a judgment of the way in which this country has carried out the obligations it assumed."
Lord Davies, asserted Lord Halifox, had gravely underrated what it had been in the power of the Government to do. Not the least was the action it took earlier this year regarding the Chinese currency.
"There was a case where it was possible to argue that British interests were deeply engaged, and that we were not only serving the interests of China.
Best Form of Help "But I think those who know the Chinese problem best would not be unwilling to say that no form of British help could have been more helpful to China than that which enabled her to maintain a reasonable equilibrium, on which depended her economic strength."
As regards the treatment which British interests in China were suffering at the hands of the Japanese, Lord Halifax said that it was a very formidable list indeed and reflected the extent of the British stake in China.
"His Majesty's Government," he asserted, "has not been indifferent to any one of these threats in any one of these directions. I am sure Lord Elibank appreciates the difficulties with which the Government is confronted, but I assure him there is no truth whatever in the rumour of the withdrawal of troops from Shanghai "As regards ships, the Commander-in-Chief of the China squadron has full authority to move ships from place to place according to what may be the needs of the moment.
"I know very well that the Japimese military authorities have advanced the plea of military necessity in justification of many acts which have resulted in the limiting of British rights and interests, but His Majesty's Government is unable to accept that plea, especially in the many places in which military operations have now ceased, as an excuse for the impairment of rights secured to our nationals under solemn treaty provisions.
No Unilateral Modifications "Still less can we accept the unilateral modification of instruments entered into freely by ourselves and other Powers, "AN matters of complaint made in the debate have been the subject of representations—sometimes repeated representations—to the proper Japanese authorities, and the Government will continue to assert its full efforts and influence to secure the maintenance of the rights of British subjects to live and trade peacefully in China."
Alluding to the detention of Lt.- Colonel C. R. Spear, British Military Attache in China, by the Japanese authorities at Kalgan, Lord Halifax said that his journey was devoid of any ulterior purpose, as suggested by the Japanese, but that whatever the Japanese suspicions, they should hot have detained him once his identity was established.
It. Cooper (the British Language Officer) had reported that Colonel Spear was being properly treated, and Lord Halifax said he had no reason to anticipate that the matters regarding Colonel Spear would not be satisfactorily settled.
In the case of the late R M.
Tinkler, employee of the China Printing and Finishing Company, the facts had not been fully established, but the Government took a very unfavourable view of the events which happened between the time of his wounding and the time of his death Sir Robert Craigie (the British Ambassador in Tokyo), Lord Halifa: added, had been instructed to protes and to reserve all rights of this country for compensation which, when the facts were established, it might be thought right to claim.—
Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.