[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
C. 0.261
16825
DJuly JLA
SECTION 3,27 JUL 08 ·
the text of the Conventions
as
sigued,
a copy of which has just been
received in a
subsequent despatik
from 3. C MacDonald, but is not
yet
in print.
д
аш,
Sir Your most obedient,
humble Servant,
Nanci
Bertie
No. 1.
Sir C. MacDonald to the Marquess of Salisbury.—(Received July 11.)
(No. 102. My Lord,
Peking, May 27, 1898. THE inclosed draft Convention for the extension of Hong Kong territory represents the results of the negotiations with the Yamên already reported to your Lordship by telegraph.
I cannot say that I had any great difficulty in inducing the Yamên to agree in principle to an extension of Hong Kong territory, for they recognized readily enough the necessity for it. They had in contemplation, however, only such a limited extension as would enable the British authorities to fortify both sides of Hong Kong Harbour and to defend the hills overlooking it, and expressed their hopes that my demands would not go further.
This was at an interview on the 5th April.
I told them that nothing more would be asked than was necessary for the defence of Hong Kong, but I was unable at the moment to give them any precise details, for I did not myself know what was wanted. I had already applied to the Acting Governor of Hong Hong, and from him I received on the 13th April a chart showing the present limits of British territory, the maximum extension considered desirable by the military authorities, and a frontier which would be acceptable if this maximum could not be obtained. He informed me, in reply to subsequent inquiry, that a copy of this chart had been sent to the Colonial Ofice on the 9th November, 1894, so that I was able to refer to it in my telegrams to your Lordship.
With the chart the Acting Governor inclosed a Memorandum, by General Barker, drawn up in 1894, and his own observations on it, and copies of letters from the Hong Kong branch of the Navy League. These documents contained sundry arguments in favour of an extension of Hong Kong territory, such as the necessity for a new rike- range and for exercise ground for the troops, the inadequacy of cemetery accommodation at Hong Kong and the like; but in view of the fact that, as far as I could estimate, the area demanded amounted to some 200 square miles, I did not think it desirable to put forward these considerations in presenting the case to the Yamêu, for they would have met me with offers to give us all territory required for the
purposes named. Accordingly, in the Memorandum I presented to them I confined myself to demon- strating the strategical necessity of the line from Mirs Bay to Deep Bay, shown on the Hong Kong Chart as our frontier, and of the islands to the south and west being also placed under our jurisdiction, and I supplied them with a tracing of the chart showing the limits required.
I also represented the difficulty of China's position in case war were threatened between England and another Power, for she could neither grant nor refuse assent to the laying of mines on the Chinese side of the harbour of Hong Kong without giving offence to one side or the other.
When I called a day or two later to discuss the matter, the Ministers showed that they had been far from expecting a demand for so large an extension as that indicated. I invited them to compare it with what had been leased to Germany at Kiao- chau and to Russia in Liaotung, à comparison I was able to make the more effectively that I had, through the kindness of Sir Edward Seymour, been supplied with maps drawn to the same scale of these different concessions.
The Yamên tried to put Wei-bai Wei into the balance, but I told them that Wei-hai Wei had been leased to us as much in their interests as our own, and that we would give it up to-morrow if Russia would leave Port Arthur. I was not, I said, respon- sible for the amount of territory asked. It had been determined by the military autho- rities at Hong Kong so long as 1894, and we should, long before this, have invited China to make over to us what was necessary for the Colony's safety had we not been afraid of setting an example to other Powers. The time was now opportune for China to make the concession to us without any risk of counter-claims.
[1515 g-3]