Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
13270
RECO
&
[June 26,] Rce 14 JUL 99
SECTION 4.
Sve
No.
No.
Mr. Bax-Ironside to the Marquess of Salisbury.—(Received June 26.)
(No. 121. Confidential.)
Peking, May 12, 1899. My Lord,
WITH reference to my despatch, No. 110, Confidential, I have the honour to state that on the 27th ultimo I received a telegram from your Lordship instructing me to inform the Tsung-li Yamên that Her Majesty's Government have been most painfully impressed by the recent occurrences at Kowloon, and the resistance to the carrying out of the Convention of June 1898.
Your Lordship added that Her Majesty's Government are convinced that the repeated attacks made on the British force by Chinese troops in uniform cannot have taken place without the effective concurrence of the local authorities, and this conviction is confirmed by the refusal of the Canton Viceroy to remove his troops from the leased territory when urged to do so by the Governor of Hong Kong, and by the dispatch of 600 additional men to Kowloon city on the 14th April, and the capture of certain Chinese military flags.
Her Majesty's Government had further seen instructions which were sent from Canton to the officer in command of the coast forts that, in the event of more than three British men-of-war entering the harbour, fire was at once to be opened on them.
Your Lordship instructed me to intimate that Her Majesty's Government will be compelled to ask for satisfaction for these grave injuries, and that they reserve their demands pending further consideration of the form which they should take.
I at once asked for an interview with the Tsung-li Yamen which was fixed for the 29th ultimo. I informed the Ministers of the contents of your Lordship's telegram.
Their Excellencies complained with regard to the dispatch of the 600 troops referred to by your Lordship, that they had been sent at the especial request of the Governor of Hong Kong to keep order.
For this purpose only 300 men had been sent to Samchun and 300 to Kowloon, and they contended that, as soon as I had asked for their removal, instructions in that sense were forwarded to Canton at once. Nothing further had been heard by the Yamên.
The people who offered resistance had, they asseverated, no connection whatever with the Viceroy's troops.
As a matter-of-fact all the village train-bands in the Kuangtung Province wore uniforms and carried flags just like Government troops, although they were not controlled by the Government.
Their Excellencies refused to credit that orders had been sent from Canton to the coast forts to fire on British men-of-war, and they asked what proofs I could bring of such orders having been dispatched. According to information which had reached them from the Kuangtung notables, the disturbances were all the work of Roman Catholic converts.
I reviewed at length every incident which had taken place in connection with this matter. I pointed out that I had written once and had warned their Excellencies verbally twice, but they had entirely failed to realize what was happening.
The Ministers could only repeat their old explanations, and they found fault with the British Commissioner of Customs at Kowloon, Mr. Hillier, who, the Viceroy of Canton said, had made a mistake in stopping the levy of Customs duties except at three of the stations. For this he was about to be removed from Kowloon.
The Yamen had been expressly informed by a despatch of the 15th ultimo that the Hong Kong Government had been instructed to permit the retention for the present of only three stations.
I pointed out that Mr. Hillier had not fallen into error.
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