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C. O.
13437
REC?
PECP 30 JUL 85
50
No. 53.
Mr. O'Conor to Earl Granville.-(Received May 19.)
(No. 133. Secret and Confidential.) My Lord,
I HAVE recorded the telegram which I had the honour to send your Lordship this
Peking, March 28, 1885. day, giving, as far as I have been able, the substance of the Preliminary Agreement now under the immediate consideration of the Governments of France and China in the view of peace.
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I believe the Protocol was drawn up on the Chinese side entirely. The first Article, China re-ratifies the Treaty of Tientsin, France engages not to demand more," was, I understand, agreed to by M, Ferry in the sense it was framed, though the wording was amended. Article II ran, as telegraphed to your Lordship, "Blockade to be raised, hostilities to cease on signature."
I believe this Article to mean that the blockade of Formosa will cease from the date of signature of the Protocol, and that active hostilities will likewise come to an end; but whether it also means that ships will be allowed to come north laden with rice I have not succeeded in finding out.
The third Article, "Definitive Treaty of Peace to be negotiated forthwith," means, no doubt, that as soon as the Protocol is signed, fresh negotiations will be opened for a definitive Treaty by the French Minister, still residing at Shanghae, coming north, or though less likely, by the Marquis Tsêng in Paris.
Considerable importance must be attached to the fact of an Imperial Decree having been recorded approving the above terms, and an earnest desire for a settlement is shown by the Chinese Government departing so far from precedent as to authorize by a Decree from the Throne an outside agent in Paris to sign so important a document.
M. Ferry appears to have agreed in substance to the three Articles, subject to approval, however, by the Chinese of some secondary, yet by no means unimportant, explanations, which he proposes shortly to furnish.
Kelung is to remain in French possession, at any rate, till the regular Treaty of Peace is signed, and China contends for the status quo in Tonquin,
As regards the frontier commercial advantages asked for by France, I understand that China has intimated her willingness to accord very liberal privileges, provided they are limited by two stipulations-first, that she is not asked for anything injurious to herself; and, second, that the privileges demanded are not incompatible with the most-favoured- nation clauses of her Treaties with foreign Powers.
I have, &c. (Signed) N. R. O'CONOR.
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