BRITONS IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 12, 15 January 1926, Page 7

BRITONS IN CHINA.

A DETERMINED BOYCOTT. DESPERATE SITUATION. LONDON, December 14. The "Morning Post" publishes a telegram it has received from Messrs. L. Leefe and Stanley Dodwell, president and vice-president respectively of the China Association. They describe the situation of the British residents in China as desperate. The authors of the message say the anti-British boycott which is being carried on by the Chinese prevents the carrying of merchandise on British ships. Trade at Hongkong is at a standstill. British goods only reach Canton by devious routes. The fear is growing that the colony ■will be lost and that British prestige will be ruined unless the boycott is ended. The only British goods which reach Canton are sold first to Chinese merchants, who send them via Shanghai and Formosa. Thus the English traders of Hongkong lose the profit. One requisite in Southern China to-day is that a trader must not be a British subject. "Can anything be more humiliating?" ask the correspondents. Yet British diplomacy has totally failed to deal with the situation. "There is even a theory that negotiations should be carried on through Moscow, as it is suggested that Russia has made the trouble in China in retaliation for the British Government not ratifying the treaty framed by the Labour Government last year. "A Chinaman who does any work for a British resident at Swatow is promptly arrested and paraded through the town with a t>aper cap on his head. He is forced to clean the streets. "Only the help of British naval ratings enables the English colony at Swatow to land enough food to keep the British residents alive, as they cannot buy food locally. "British merchants in the China trade consider that British diplomacy is too timid and lacking in initiative. We hope Lord Willington, who is coming to China in connection with the Boxer indemnity, will prove a strong man, able to ameliorate the situation."—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)