A MOMENTOUS AGREEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 8

A MOMENTOUS AGREEMENT.

So far as the details of the agreement regarding Hankow have come to hand, it seems clear that the Cantonese have secured practically all that they demanded short of the expulsion of foreigners from the city and the country. All the foreign concessions at Hankow are to be amalgamated into the municipality, which is to be administered by a Council, with a majority of Chinese members, appointed for the purpose by the Nationalist Government. The British Municipal Council is to be dissolved, and the duty of policing the district and taking charge of sanitation and public health is to devolve at once upon the new local authority. Briefly, the British retire from active control of their concession, and the Chinese take their place.

There is one significant comment offered by Mr. Chen upon this agreement, which may be interpreted in two distinct ways. The Cantonese Foreign Minister has said that the Hankow Settlement is "not intended to serve as a precedent for the future status of any British or other concession." From Mr. Chen's point of view this possibly means that the privileges granted to the British at Hankow— such as compensation for losses and a limited share in the local administration—will not of necessity be granted at Shanghai or elsewhere. But from the British side of the case this proviso may also be construed as a warning to the Chinese that the complacent and amicable attitude that Britain has adopted in regard to Hankow may be modified elsewhere if circumstances are radicallv altered.

One indication of Britain's resolve not to yield unconditionally to Nationalist demands is the final assurance from Mr. O'Malley regarding the disposition of the British forces. Sir Austen Chamberlain told the House of Commons on Monday that our envoy was instructed to make it clear to Mr. Chen that "Britain reserved to herself full power to dispose of her troops as might be necessary for the protection of British lives at Shanghai." It has suited Mr. Chen's purpose to represent the dispatch of the British contingents as a menacing act of aggression. But now that he has accepted the Hankow agreement with this reservation attached his argument has lost whatever force it originally possessed. Meantime, much to the annoyance of the Cantonese, Britain is negotiating with Peking for a peaceful settlement of the difficulties that have arisen in the Northern provinces over commercial privileges and extraterritorial rights, presumably on the lines followed at Hankow. The Nationalists are, of course, convinced that they will ultimately govern the whole of China, and this may be so. But until one responsible authority is recognised by the whole of this vast country Britain cannot be expected to ignore either Peking or Canton, and the course that she has adopted, in negotiating with both centres at once, is not only reasonable and equitable, but entirely in accordance with the traditions of correct diplomatic procedure.