C.O.
(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[26679]
No. 1.
733
[August 5.]
SECTION 1.
C O 38281
RECEIVED
Mr. Carnegie to Sir Edward Grey.---(Received August 5.)
Peking, August 5, 1906
(No. 149.) (Telegraphic.)
I HAVE the honour to report, with reference to your telegrams Nos. 140 and 141, that last Friday I asked Tong, whom I saw at his house, why directions to carry on as before were not contained, in accordance with the assurances he had privately given me, in the instructions to the Inspector-General. His reply was that there was nothing at variance with what he had undertaken in the instructions which therefore implied directions in the above sense. This explanation I said I was unable to regard as satisfactory, and urged him to issue to the Inspector-General, for communication to his subordinates, the instructions he had promised, and thus meet the wishes of His Majesty's Government. Uneasiness existed in many quarters which such a step would go far to allay, and the requirements of His Majesty's Government would probably be met by it. To this, however, Tong would not consent. On two occasions, he said, verbal instructions to carry on as before had been given to Sir Robert Hart by T'ich and himself (see my despatch No. 222 of the 14th May), and therefore as these instructions were in no sense private, he was at liberty, if he thought fit, to circulate them.
His Excellency defied any one to show proof of cause for alarm at the new instructions, and could not understand the excitement which he believed they had caused. I mentioned reports I had heard about the Customs statistics and the Amoy custom-house. He knew nothing of the latter, but said, in regard to the former, that the Board only wished to see these and other reports before the Inspector-General published them.
He then proceeded to give me his views, which did not appear unreasonable, respecting necessary improvements in the method of rendering financial reports and in the compilation of statistics. He desired to increase the efficiency of the Customs, but denied emphatically any intention to change its administration.
Your telegram No. 140 was received on the same day, and Tong was again pressed by Mr. Campbell to meet your wishes. He could not be persuaded to send orders in writing, but so far yielded as to promise to direct Hart, when he saw him, to issue a Circular, if he had not already done so, in the sense we desired.
I have asked Hart, whom I have informed of what Tong said to me, for his views, but have not yet received them.
His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae confirms Tong's statement respecting the statistics. He has ascertained that directions have been given to that Department that returns relating to purely customs and revenue business are to be sent to the new Board instead of, as hitherto, to the Wai-wu Pu.
The question at Amoy, on which I have received a report from His Majesty's Consul, is apparently of small importance.
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