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Inclosure 8 in No. 1.
Prince Ching to Sir E. Satow.
Kuang Hsü, 31st year, 7th moon, 25th day (August 25, 1905).
Your Excellency,
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 22nd instant, with reference to the application of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., on behalf of the steam-ship "Columbia" to ply between Foochow, Sha-ch'eng, and Chapu, requesting that instructions be sent to the Acting Viceroy at Foochow to issue the required certificate without delay.
A telegram has now been sent by this Board to the Acting Viceroy, calling on him to lose no time in consulting with the Consul upon this matter.
I avail, &c.
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It is therefore clear that the Provincial Government is actuated more by a desire to obstruct British enterprise than by general consideration for local interests. But the Regulations for Steam Navigation Inland of 1898 were specially framed for both native and foreign steamers, and it is quite unreasonable to expect British firms to forego the privileges afforded to them thereby because Chinese merchants do not come forward to enjoy them. I have the honour therefore to request that this matter may be carefully considered by your Highness' Board, and that instructions may be sent to the Viceroy at Foochow to sanction Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co.'s application without further delay.
I avail, &c. (Signed)
ERNEST SATOW.
Your Highness,
Inclosure 9 in No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to Prince Ching.
Peking November 1, 1905. ON the 25th August your Highness informed me that the Board had telegraphed to the Acting Viceroy at Foochow, calling upon him to lose no time in consulting with His Majesty's Consul with regard to the application of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co. for the steamer "Columbia" to ply between Foochow and Shach'eng under the Inland Waters Navigation Rules.
I telegraphed to His Majesty's Acting Consul in this sense, and have now received his report showing that he at once wrote to the Viceroy asking for an interview on the 1st September with a view to discussing the question.
His Excellency replied that as the Deputy's report on Shach'eng was not yet presented, he was unable to discuss the matter. On the 11th September His Majesty's Consul wrote again asking for an interview on the 15th, which the Viceroy accorded, though he explained that as the Deputy still had not reported, he could give no definite answer to the question at issue.
At this interview, Mr. Giles complained of the delay which was taking place, four weeks having elapsed since his last visit, and the matter remaining still without settlement. The Viceroy replied that a full investigation was necessary, and that he would be able in a month at the outside to state his views.
On the 7th October the Viceroy wrote to Mr. Giles stating that in view of the Deputy's report, which showed that steam navigation would injure the tea-carrying business and junk trade, he must again refuse to grant Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co.'s application, and that he had telegraphed to the Wai-wu Pu acquainting them with this decision.
On the following day Mr. Giles called upon his Excellency, and pointed out that the tea-carrying business only lasted for two months in the year at the most, while the rest of the year the tea-carriers had to find other means of livelihood, and these would be provided for them, from June to March, by the introduction of steam navigation. The Viceroy replied that if the "Columbia" shipped no tea he was prepared to consider the question, but His Majesty's Consul did not feel justified in making any such engagement.
This question appears, therefore, to have now resolved itself into the single issue of the tea-carriers' business being injured by the proposed introduction of steam navigation at Shach'eng. But I am led to believe, after reading the despatch of His Majesty's Acting Consul and its inclosures, that this apprehension is both groundless and insincere. It is insincere because the provincial officials have been calling upon native merchants to be first in the field and subscribe the capital necessary to float a steam-ship Company in order to promote commerce, thus demonstrating their view that while a Chinese steam-ship Company plying to Shach'eng would be beneficial to trade, the advent of a British steamer would be injurious. My reasons for believing the apprehensions of the provincial authorities to be groundless are borne out by an inclosure to Mr. Giles' despatch, which is a copy of a Petition presented by the merchants and people of Shach'eng to the Financial Bureau at Foochow. In this document the petitioners state their conviction that the opening of Shach'eng to steam navigation would benefit trade, and they beg the Financial Bureau to sanction the scheme.
Your Highness,
Inclosure 10 in No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to Prince Ch'ing.
Peking, December 13, 1905. ON the 6th December, at the Wai-wu Pu, I spoke to the Grand Secretary Natung on the subject of the application of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., on behalf of the steam-ship "Columbia," to ply between Foochow and Shach'eng under the Inland Navigation Rules, and was informed that a telegram would be sent to the Acting Viceroy of Fukien to press him to conform to the Treaty.
I was therefore surprised to receive to-day from His Majesty's Consul at Foochow a telegram to the effect that, at an interview on the 8th December, the Viceroy stated explicitly that he could not grant the necessary certificate without special instructions from the Wai-wu Pu, and these he had not received.
This matter has been the subject of correspondence with your Highness since April last, and it seems useless to argue it further.
I have now the honour to request that instructions may be sent by telegram to the Acting Viceroy to issue the necessary certificate forthwith to the steam-ship "Columbia." Unless I can be assured that these instructions are sent, I shall feel it my duty to address your Highness a formal protest on the subject without delay, and to hold the Chinese Government responsible for any damage to British commercial interests resulting from the failure to fulfil Treaty provisions.
(No. 12.) Sir,
I avail, &c.
(Signed)
ERNEST SATOW.
Inclosure 11 in No. 1.
Consul Brady to Sir E. Satow.
Foochow, April 5, 1906. REFERRING to my telegram No. 5 of the 27th ultimo, in which I reported that the Tartar General had informed me that the Wai-wu Pu had assented to the steam-ship "Columbia" running to Shach'eng under Regulations which would be duly communicated to me, I have now the honour to inclose a copy of a letter since received from the Board of Foreign Affairs.
The Commissioner of Customs has informed me that he has received a similar letter from the Board, and also one from the Tartar General, who is also Superintendent of Customs, but they are both somewhat vague, and merely lay down the principles under which the steamer will be allowed to run; no Regulations have been sent to the Commissioner, and it is left to him to arrange them with the T'kin Wei-yuan in accord with the existing Rules for Inland Water Steam Navigation, as drawn up in July, 1898, and amended in September of the same year; the Mackay Treaty Additional Rules (Annex C), and the existing Fukien Rules. The Commissioner of Customs is now putting them together, and as soon as I know definitely what the Rules are that are to be applied, I will communicate them to you.