The Anglo-Japanese Conference The Anglo-Japanese conference continues under condi- tions
which can hardly be considered very favourable for negotiations. Indignities are still being inflicted on British subjects in various parts of China. Mass meetings are being organised both in Japan and China to demonstrate or work up anti-British feeling, and Japanese conclusions on points still under inquiry by the conference are published as fact in the Press. Two fact-finding committees have been appointed. One, dealing with the question of police-collabo- ration, will have to investigate, among other matters, the original cause of dispute relating to the four Chinese whom the British refused to hand over. The other is inquiring into the history of the silver reserve held at Tientsin, which the Japanese maintain is the property of the North China Government and not of the National Government. There is a certain ironic interest in the emphasis laid by the Japanese on minute juridical points in view of the fact that their position in China is in direct violation of treaties. Japan's demand for the Chinese silver and recognition of her new North China currency instead of the Chinese dollar, has created deadlock, and it is satisfactory to have the assur- ance of the Prime Minister that British policy on those questions is unchanged.
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