2
Viceroy should be informed that a day has been fixed for the first meeting of the Conservancy Board, and that we hoped that the Chinese Representative would be present.
I have, &c. (Signed)
PELHAM WARREN,
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
382
[July 19.]
SECTION 1.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Wei Kuang-tao to Consul-General Sir P. Warren.
May 2, 1904.
I HAVE the honour to forward you copy of a Memorandum in five clauses of a proposal with regard to the Conservancy of the Whangpoo, made by me in a personal interview to Consul-General Goodnow and Siffert during their late visit to this capital. Mr. Goodnow consented to discuss the matter with the Consular Body on his return to Shangbae, and I presume that he has already laid the matter before you.
I hope that the Consular Body will consent to this proposal, as it will relieve the merchants from the burden of a heavy expense, and will enable work to be commenced at an early date.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Memorandum of the present Proposal in Five Clauses for Conserving the Whangpoo at Shanghae, on which I beg the Consul-General to consult with the Consular Body in view of a speedy commencement of Operations
AS the payment of tonnage and other dues by merchant vessels of the Great Powers, and the renewed contributions of foreign merchants in China to the expenses of the Whangpoo Conservancy, make it appear very much as if China were shirking her liabilities in that direction, the Chinese Government will set aside from the revenues of the Maritime Customs a yearly sum of 230,000 taels, and will also take upon themselves the payment of the 230,000 taels for the contribution of such foreign merchants are now responsible, setting apart a total sum of 460,000 Haikuan taels for the conservance of the Whangpoo, payment to cease on completion of the work.
2. The engineering works in connection with the Wangpoo shall still remain under the management of the Taotui and the Maritime Customs; and the control of the river police, lighthouses, &c., shall remain in the hands of the Maritime Customs.
3. If the present proposal obtains the consent of the Consular Body, the Chinese Government will, immediately after the end of the 3rd moon request the Consular Body to nominate one or two engineers well versed in the construction of river works to undertake the engineering,
4. The account of the moneys spent on the works shall be submitted to the Consular Body punctually every quarter.
5. The Chinese Government are willing to refrain from recovering from the port of Shanghae and from ships and cargoes of all nationalities coming into the port the expenses connected with the conservance of the Whangpoo.
No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne —(Received July 19.)
(No. 188.)
My Lord,
Peking, May 24, 1904.
BY Article 3 (h) of the "Règlement pour l'Amélioration du Cours du Whangpoo," annexed to the Protocol of the 7th September, 1901, it is provided that each Power whose shipping at Shanghae, Woosung, and other ports on the Whangpoo exceeds 200,000 tons annually, may nominate a representative on the Conservancy Board, and that these representatives shall hold office for one year.
His Majesty's Government nominated in the first instance the senior resident partner of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., while the Governments of France, Germany, Japan, and the United States severally appointed their Consuls-General at Shanghae. In this way an official element was introduced into the Board, which, for my own part, I considered unlikely to promote harmony in the working of an institution which was intended to provide for commercial shipping interests. It was, moreover, not in accordance with the view expressed by the Consular Body themselves in a letter addressed to the Shanghae Chamber of Commerce by the Senior Consul in January 1899 (copy of which is to be found in Appendix (F) to the Annual Report of the China Association for 1899-1900.
In this document Senhor Valdez, after pointing out that the proposed Board would have to be constituted by an International Convention signed at Peking, laid it down that in the constitution of the Board care must be taken to avoid any political character or motive of dispute on questions of principle, and observed that the responsibility of the Board for its actions could only be enforced before a Court of Consuls. These considerations, he added, made it evident that the Consuls could not be on the Board, and that the presence there of any official element would be of much greater inconvenience than use.
At the time the above-mentioned official nominations were made no suitable opportunity presented itself for calling attention to the fact that they had been made in disregard of the opinion unanimously expressed by the Consular Body in 1899, but the reasons on which their opinion was founded are fully as valid to-day as they were then. I have the honour now to inclose copy of the letter from the German Minister to the doyen of the Diplomatic Body, in which he communicates the fact that his Government have definitely delegated M. Knappe, the German Consul-General at Shanghae, as their member of the Conservancy Board, and the engineer Schellhoss as "membre suppléant" of the said Board.
As no provision for the appointment of "membres suppléants," or for voting by proxy at the meetings of the Board is contained in the Règlement, I thought it desirable to awaken the attention of my colleagues to what seemed to be an irregular proceeding, and this I did by writing on the Circular the following request for information:-
As Annex No. 17 to the Protocol of the 7th September, 1901, makes no mention of "membres suppléants," I beg his Excellency the German Minister to be so good as to explain this term.
The Circular being then returned to the doyen was at once sent back to the German Minister, who answered my query by writing that "the term 'membre suppléant' means that in the absence of M. Knappe or his inability to attend, M. Schellhoss is intended to take his place on the Board."
A few days later my German colleague called upon me with the intention of discussing the question, but after an explanation of my views, he appeared to be convinced that the nomination of a proxy could not be upheld, and he assured me that the suggestion was not due to himself. He expressed his readiness to telegraph to Berlin on the subject, if I would furnish him with a statement of my objections. This I did without loss of time in a private letter of which also I have the honour to inclose a copy.
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