WEST CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
[June 8.]
SECTION 1.
234
Sir M. Gosselin to the Marquess of Lansdowne.--(Received June 8.)
Lisbon, June 1, 1904.
WITH reference to your Lordship's Confidential despatch No. 28 of the 8th ultimo, I have the honour to report that I inquired to-day of Senhor d'au de Lima how the question of the substitution of French for Portuguese Bishops in Hainan now stands.
His Excellency replied that the Pope and the Portuguese Government were both prepared to agree to the withdrawal of the Portuguese Missions from the island, which for centuries past has formed part of the diocese of Macau, provided that the French Auxiliary Bishop agrees to recall the French Missions from the country lying between Macau and Canton.
This, however, the Bishop still refuses to do, proposing merely to withdraw his Missions from the immediate vicinity of Macau.
The Portuguese Government decline to accept this inadequate compromise, and unless the French Bishop agrees to hand over the Missions in the whole district between Macau and Canton to the Portuguese Bishop of Macau, the Portuguese priests will remain in Hainan.
I have, &c. (Signed) MARTIN GOSSELIN.
[2039 h-1]