NEGOTIATING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 31, 7 February 1927, Page 7

NEGOTIATING.

BRITAIN AND CHINA.

Cabinet in Close Touch With Officials. DECISIONS EXPECTED SOON. (Bj- Cable. —Press Association.—Copyrlgbt.) LONDON, February C. The Cabinet spent the -week-end in close touch with Sir Miles Lampson, British Minister to Peking, and Mr. 0. St.C. O'Mallev, Legation Secretary. who has been conducting the negotiations with the Canton Government at Hankow. Important decisions regarding the disposal of the British defence troops are expected to be made early this week. The diplomatic correspondent of the "Observer' says: As far as the British Government is concerned its chief policy is to liberate China from the obsolete svstem of virtual foreign supervision and control, and secondly to protect life in China's transition stage. "Any step on the part of the Canton or Shanghai Governments toward assurins the safety of foreigners at Shanghai would be welcomed. Diverting Troops. The Cabinet has considered the proposal to divert the British troopships now on the way to China to Hongkong, but it is gathered that it is improbable that an immediate decision will be made on the point because the transports have only just left Gibraltar. Therefore their destination need not finally be decreed for at least a fortnight. It is not a matter which can easily be decided because the consideration has arisen that a diversion of the troops may be wrongly interpreted and be hailed as a further blow to British prestige in the Far East. But a stronger consideration is whether Mr. Eugene Chen, the Canton representative, is in a position, after what happened at Hankow, to guarantee the fulfilment of a pledge that no harm shall befall foreign nationals in Shanghai, thus obviating the need for the provision of a barrier between mob excesses and British nationals. A Peking dispatch says advices from Hankow state that Britain will soon begin fresh overtures for a resumption of Mr. O'Malley's negotiations. This will be upon the understanding that the British Cabinet will cancel the dispatch of troops to Shanghai if the Nationalist Government guarantees British lives and property in the event of the capture of Shanghai. The British Minister at Peking has protested against the dismissal of Sir Francis Aglen, chief of the Maritime Customs. The protest was without avail. Contending Views. The British proposals have been handed to Mr. Eugene Chen accompanied by the following aide memorie:— "When a satisfactory settlement has been reached in respect to British concessions at Hankow and Kiukiang and when assurances are given by the National Government that they will not countenance any alteration, except by negotiation, of the status of the British concessions and international settlements, His Majesty's Government will be prepared to concede at once on the lines indicated in the enclosure, a large part of what is desired or them by the Chinese Nationalist party. | So liberal and generous a step cannot, j in their view, be regarded otherwise ! than as an earnest of the fair and con- ! ciliatory spirit with which they are ani- j mated. , Mr. Chen, in the course of his reply, communicated to Mr. O. St.C. O'Mallev. states that his Government is prepared to consider and discuss the terms outlined as a basis of a comprehensive and leasoned settlement of the existing differences between Britain nnd China, provided the terms relating to concessions, international settlements and other matters of exceptional character md implication arj not discussed by local or other Chinese authorities who cannot represent Nationalist China and it 3 organ of leadership, the Chinese Nationalist party. 'His Majesty's Government invite the National Government to regard the step proposed as an earnest of a conciliatory spirit. It is not easy to reconcile th:s claim with the feverish concentration of the British forces now progressing and the consequent war atmosphere and war neurosis created."