3-086-064 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chinese Question: Mr. A. J. Balfour's Statement in the House of Commons, 1898. '"I shall be content if this Government, this House, and the Parliaments which are to succeed the present one are content to further that commercial policy which we...have done our best to favour. If they do that in no spirit of selfish monopoly, with no desire to exclude others from China, but with a settled wish that what we ask for ourselves we are ready to give to others; if, I say, that policy is the one which they will pursue, I am convinced that we shall build up in Europe - and, not least, in America - a body of public and international opinion which will do more than any hasty action which we could take at the present moment".' Mr. Balfour...reviewed the course of disintegration in the Chinese Empire. He admitted that the Russian action at Port Arthur had been opposed by the Government, and that Russia had rejected the British proposal of strict neutrality by both Powers in the Gulf of Pechili...Mr. Balfour confessed that the purely commercial policy of this country in the Far East - the policy of the "open door" - had been modified by events, but he argued that we had taken a reasonable and sufficient security for our predominant interests'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.