[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[32851]
No. 1.
764
[September 29.]
SECTION 4.
39437
RECS Pg 26 001 06
Sir,
China Association to Foreign Office.--(Received September 29.)
159, Cannon Street, London, September 28, 1906.
WHILE thanking the Secretary of State for the recognition expressed in your letter of the 3rd August, of the validity of the Association's representations regarding the retention of the British Commercial Attaché at Peking, the General Committee venture to renew the expression of a hope that a complete return to the earlier conditions of the appointment is not precluded.
The convenience to His Majesty's Minister of having at hand an important member of his staff is not ignored, but it is submitted that the advantage to British mercantile interests of stationing the Commercial Attaché in the chief commercial centre of China should preponderate over every other consideration.
If His Majesty's Minister should wish to send the Attaché on a special mission, he can direct him as promptly by telegram as by word of mouth; while the Attaché would at Shanghae be more centrally situated, and within more convenient access, therefore, to the place designated.
For those and the reasons stated in the Association's letter of the 23rd July, the General Committee venture to hope that the Secretary of State will reconsider the question and arrange that the Commercial Attaché shall make Shanghae his headquarters, as before.
I have, &c. (Signed) JOSEPH WELCH,
Honorary Secretary.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Extract from Letter from Shanghae Branch.
"IT seems incongruous that Shanghae (and all ports are similarly, if varyingly, concerned) should be expected to make its representations to the Commercial Attaché from a distance of some 800 miles; and this, not only on account of the trouble entailed (which is great to men who have their own every-day business to attend to), but specially on account of the unsatisfactory nature of representations by correspondence. More can be done (and better done) in half an hour's conversation than through the exchange of dozens of letters. The place of the Commercial Attaché should be in the trade centres of his nationals, and not in the (dare we say unappreciative) diplomatic atmosphere of Peking."
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