[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
180
[June 29.]
SECTION 1.
Acting Consul Litton to the Marquess of Lansdowne,-(Received June 29.)
(No. 9. Confidential.)
My Lord,
Teng-yueh (for Yunnan-fu), May 25, 1903.
I HAVE the honour to submit duplicate of a report on Yunnan affairs which I have addressed to His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires, marked Confidential.
I have, &c. (Signed)
G. LITTON.
(Confidential.)
Inclosure in No. 1.
Memorandum on Yünnan Affairs, May 1903.
1. Official Movements.
Chinese Officials.-The Yunnan Government is now in very undesirable hands. The new Viceroy, Ting Chen To, is a reactionary and a man of no ability or intelligence. He is personally honest, but cannot keep his subordinates in order. In Chinese matters he is admittedly feeble and incompetent, in foreign matters purely obstructive. The Governor Liu is, I understand, trying to get away from Yunnan, and if he goes things will get worse, as he is an able man and friendly to us. The Treasurer, Li Shou Fen, who took office last autumn, has been accurately described by a French official as a "fiefé voleur." His reputation already stinks among the people, and he is squeezing and robbing in all directions; he pocketed 4,500 taels over the sale of the Ta Li Prefecture, which was vacated by Prefect Lo in consequence of the illegal taxation on foreign goods, and I am now inquiring into a report that the Treasurer made several thousand taels more by levying squeezes on the other Ta Li officials on the plea that the British Government had demanded 15,000 taels in connection with the same case. This man Li is both anti-foreign and spiteful.
Ts'uan, the friendly provincial Judge, has been transferred to Kwei Chou and his place taken by Liu Chun Lin, formerly Taotai on the French frontier, who had temporarily gone into retirement. Liu has at least one anti-foreign riot to his name, and is a notoriously anti-foreign and especially anti-British is not mentioned, it is mentioned he is anti-French official. French influence cannot be great if they have not prevented this man's promotion.
Hu, Prefect of Yunnan-fu is to act as Taotai of Pu Erh (south-west Yünnan), but he has not yet gone to his post. (See below.)
Taotai Wei, nephew of the Nanking Viceroy, may after all stay in Yunnan, as I hear that he has been offered the substantive post of Mengtse (French frontier) Taotai, in which he has been acting for some months. He is the best official in the province.
The Ta Li, or Western Taotai Sung, should have removed to Teng Yueh by this time, but he has been much alarmed by the energetic criticism which we have passed upon his feeble conduct in connection with the recent li-kin case, and he is seeking to delay; I do not propose to hurry him.
Foreign Officials--Three Japanese officers and five other Japanese, who were making commercial inquiries, have passed through Teng-yueh and Yünnan. Several official French travellers, including one or two of high rank have passed through Yünnan from Mengtse during the spring; two French engineers are now established outside the south gate of Yunnan city with their families, while two gentlemen of the "service financier" of the railway are in the city. The last accounts I had from Mengtse state that the French and Italian communities there number 250, all officials, mostly railway officials and their families. The post-office, hospital, &c., are being rapidly pushed forward, but most of the constructions are very jerry-built.
[2021 ƒ-1]