Viceroy Tan to Consul Mansfield.
May 19, 1899.
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch of the 17th instant, informing me that the Governor of Hong Kong, in accordance with instructions received from his Government, has sent a force to occupy Samchun and Kowloon city. I am also in receipt of a report from the Consul commanding at Ta Peng, stating that on the 16th instant, between 3 and 5 p.m., several hundred soldiers under the command of British Officers had swarmed into Kowloon city, and had shut the gates, allowing no one to enter or leave the town; that they had hoisted the British flag on the city wall and had forced the officials and people to leave the city at once.
I was inexpressibly surprised on receiving this report, seeing that the Boundary Commissioners of our respective countries had settled that Sanchun was outside the limits of the new territory, and that the Tsungli Yamen had formerly agreed with the British Minister at Peking that the Chinese should still continue to exercise their functions within the city of Kowloon.
The Convention is still in existence and I do not see how it is possible to depart from it.
It has long been known throughout the world that your country holds good faith and righteous dealing in the greatest estimation. Moreover, as the friendly relations between England and China have remained through a long period of time, it is only right that England should increase the already great cordiality of existing relations. But the action of England in the present instance...