Received
Incl.
SECTION 1.
404
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] C. O.
CHINA TRADE.
37315
RECE [August 2019 CT 06
CONFIDENTIAL.
F. O.,
Foreign Office
to
No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne, ---(Received August 28.)
(No. 242.) My Lord,
Peking, July 11, 1905. WITH reference to your Lordship's telegram No. 76 of the 4th May informing me that a telegram had been received from British merchants at Shanghae through His Majesty's Consul-General complaining that China neglected to full the stipula- tions of the Treaty of 1902, and instructing me to inform them that your Lordship would be glad to receive a detailed statement from them in amplification of their telegram, I have the honour to inclose in original a letter addressed to your Lordship by some fifty representatives of mercantile firms and banks out of seventy-seven who signed the original telegram. I add also copy of a despatch from Sir Pelham Warren inclosing a letter from Mr. E. S. Little forwarding the letter for your Lordship.
Sir Pelham Warren's despatch explains how it came to be inferred that this telegram was sent through him. I learn from him that he had declined to forward it to your Lordship, but at the request of Mr. Little consented to ask me to transmit it.
As my various despatches had already made your Lordship acquainted with the extent to which the Treaty of 1902 had been carried out by the Chinese Government, I did not see the necessity for such a telegram, and I replied that I did not see my way to being the channel for forwarding it to your Lordship, but I added that specific complaints of British subjects would always receive the careful attention of His Majesty's Government and of His Majesty's Legation.
The letter to your Lordship asserts that China actively opposes the Treaty stipula- tions with regard to :-----
(a.) Currency;
(b) Minting;
(c) Taxation;
(d.) Navigation.
Sir Pelham Warren's comments on these statements will be found in his despatch, and it will at once be seen that the cases complained of under (c) and (d) are mostly such as he expects to be able to arrange locally. The need for directly calling your As far as his Lordship's attention to them is consequently not very conspicuous. information goes, he says that the statements under the heading (u) are borne out by facts. Under (6) he reports that Mining Regulations have been drawn up by Mr. Broad, a mining expert in the employ of the Chinese Government, and that they have been submitted to the Viceroy of the Hukwang. Mr. Broad has been occupied over twelve months in framing these Regulations, which are based on those in force in Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. Sir Pelham Warren observes that the provincial authorities generally appear inclined to place obstacles in the way of the opening up of mines, and he points out a way in which such opposition may be overcome.
Before going any further, it will be interesting to give some facts relating to the genesis of the telegram to your Lordship from British merchants in Shanghae.
In the issue of the "Times" of the 17th April there was published a telegram from its Shanghae correspondent alleging that no single important clause of the Mackay Treaty was as yet effective, and reporting that several important cases were in the bands of His Majesty's Consul-General, arising out of the levy of li-kin on goods covered by transit passes, that the local meat supply was seriously affected by the imposition of a heavy li-kin on cattle, while foreign-owned cotton mills were required to pay dues on raw material heavier than those levied on the native mills. The following instances were given of disregard of the Mackay Treaty by Chinese officials-First, the establishment of mints by high provincial authorities everywhere for the coicing by each of his own new copper currency; and, secondly, the non-fulfilment of the Article by which China undertook to revise the Mining Regulations in such a manner as to attract and protect foreign capital.
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