happy days for the jervois faithful..., page-17

I have dealt with Chinese delegations for many years.
The reason they send a committee [Curly, Larry, Moe and Shemp in this instance] is to keep an eye on each other, and usually they all have different roles [ engineers + accountants +party member etc]
They can never make decisions, they are not high enough in the hierarchy, and would do the big guys out of a job if they were allowed to decide.
They will report back, be interrogated [de-briefed] and higher authorities will then try to re-negotiate a deal to show their power. Then if there is ever a stuff up, the committee gets the blame anyway! Perfect system!
Don't we do that here with Government Sub Committees?
The result will come, but they cannot respond too quickly as it would look as if they did not give it due consideration, and that means