is Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
NA TRADE. résultat cherché si le Gouvernement Chinois, d'une part, en abaissant le droit d'e FIDENTIAL. actuel, diminuait les bénéfices que peuvent espérer les fraudeurs, et, d'autre organisait, d'accord avec les Puissances, une réglementation sérieuse de la vent produits en question.
Veuillez, &c. (Signé) EDMOND BAP
00]
No. 1.
[August 27.]
SECTION 4.
625
Mr. Chargé d'Affaires,
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Carnegie.
Mr. Carnegie to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 27.) 290. Confidential.)
WITH reference to Sir E. Satow's despatch No. 210 of the 3rd May, I have the honour to inclose, for your information, a Memorandum of a private conversation Mr. C. W. Campbell had with Mr. Tong Shoa-yi on the 2nd July on the new Rules published by the 19th August, I have no great confidence that they meet the new Mining Regulations. Though Mr. Tong says that he hopes to see them in any case, I shall not fail to press the matter on the attention
I have, &c.
appear so soon.
American Legation, Peking, June 12, 1906.
WITH reference to the note of the 3rd March of his Excellency Sir Ernest Satow informing me that His Majesty's Government are desirous of hastening the adoption of measures contemplated by Article XI of the British Commercial Treaty of 1902, relating to the prohibition of the general entry of morphia into China, and adding that the co-operation of the United States in the matter would give much satisfaction to His Majesty's Government, and to my reply thereto of the 5th March, I have the honour to inform you that I am in receipt of a reply from my Government.
Government.
(Signed) LANCELOT D. CARNEGIE.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Regulations, July 2, 1906.
The Department of State will take steps to secure the enactment of laws to carry out the obligations of Article XVI of the American Treaty of 1903, as amended, when China shall have complied with the necessary conditions precedent thereto, which in the case of the United States, are in effect the same as those stated by His Britannic Majesty's Minister in his note of the 3rd March. Furthermore, my Government would be pleased to receive a copy of the draft of legislation proposed by the Chinese Government.
I REMINDED Mr. Tong Shoa-yi several times during the past two months that I had promised to go through the Mining Regulations with me before they were promulgated.
I have, &c.
Yesterday morning I called upon him by appointment, and he produced two bulky volumes of manuscript, one containing the Imperial Mining Regulations in 16 Articles and 74 sections, and the other a set of supplementary Regulations $3.73 in number. He said they were still in the form in which they had come from the Hukuang Viceroy (Chang Chih-tung); that he had several men engaged on different portions, criticising and suggesting amendments, and that he hoped to see the final revision published by the end of the Chinese 6th moon (19th August). He mentioned that he had not been able himself to make a close study of them, and generally showed a disinclination to explain or discuss them in detail.
I did not wonder; he was very busy when I arrived with a file of documents which had accumulated during his recent absence at Tien-tsin, and these were evidently much more on his mind than the Mining Regulations.
I concluded from the quantity of manuscript that it was not possible to examine the Regulations, even superficially, in the half-hour at my disposal. I said so to Mr. Tong and suggested that he might allow me to have a copy privately for a few days. As on previous occasions, he saw difficulty in this, and hinted that it would be like allowing the Legation to interfere in the drawing up of the Regulations. He was quite willing to let me have a look at them privately as a personal friend, but was afraid that the Chinese Government would not approve of his giving me a copy, even for a few days.
I said that there could be no question of interference (Mr. Tong is always extremely touchy in matters affecting "sovereign rights"), and mentioned that our real ground for interest lay in the fact that the Chinese Government had undertaken by Article IX of the Commercial Treaty of 1902 to make new Mining Regulations which would be at least as liberal as those of other countries, and which would offer no impediment to the introduction of foreign capital. A glance through the leaves of the manuscript led me to think that this engagement was not borne in mind, and I was also afraid that the extra-territorial jurisdiction of foreign authorities over their nationals--a well-known Treaty right-was to a certain extent lost sight of. I had little doubt, without attempting to enter into detail, that the Regulations as they stood would not satisfy the foreign Powers concerned, and it would be unfortunate if Regulations which were absurd or impracticable were issued.
It was to obviate the objections which were certain to be raised that I suggested his taking us into his confidence a little more.
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