[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[33683]
No. 1.
19
40459 [October 6.]
SECTION 3,2 V 16
Mr. Carnegie to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 6.)
(No. 353.) Sir,
Peking, August 22, 1906. WITH reference to my despatch No. 336 of the 8th August, I have the honour to inclose copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's Consul-General, dated the 1st August, in which is forwarded a Memorandum of an interview he had with the Viceroy Ts'en Ch'ün-hsüan on the 24th July. I have expressed to Mr. Mansfield my approval of his proceedings.
On the 17th August I received a telegram from him reporting two more piracies of British launches, one 50 miles above Wuchow, in which five Chinese guards were wounded and one drowned, and the other 17 miles from Canton, in which the Chinese master was shot and the engineer mortally wounded. On the same day I called at the Wai-wu Pu and stated the facts. Such occurrences, I said, following close upon the "Sainam" outrage, were plain testimony of the inadequacy of the Viceroy's measures. I made a strong complaint, insisted on the necessity of radical measures, and hinted that if the Chinese Government were unable to cope with piracy in Kuantung and Kuangsi, other authorities concerned might naturally consider it advisable to take independent steps in their own interests.
A conversation followed, in the course of which Mr. Tong, as a Cantonese, dwelt on the difficulties of rooting out evils so ingrained as robbery, blackmail, and piracy were in Kuantung. His own family in Canton city had been robbed five times in one year, and a relative had been kidnapped near his house and held to ransom for a large sum. There was not a year in which an organized attack of robbers was not made on some member of his clan. He attributed the failure of the authorities to ameliorate this state of affairs to the obstruction offered by powerful clans when search was made in their villages for such dacoits. He did not approve of Ts'en Ch'ün-hsüan's methods of wholesale execution, said that things were not so bad when Li Hung-chang was in Canton, and seemed to suggest that the best solution would be a change of Viceroys.
I repeated that remedial measures were imperative, and said that I would write to the Wai-wu Pu on the last two outrages.
Next day (the 18th August) I addressed Prince Ching a letter, copy of which I have the honour to inclose for your information.
Copies of this despatch and of my despatch No. 313 of the 23rd July have been sent to the Governor of Hong Kong.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
LANCELOT D. CARNEGIE.
(No. 38.) Sir,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul-General Mansfield to Mr. Carnegie.
Canton, August 1, 1906.
I HAVE the honour to inclose in duplicate a Memorandum of an interview I had on the 24th July with his Excellency the Viceroy. I should have sent it earlier, but wished to send with it a despatch he promised to send me detailing the steps taken hitherto, and proposed to be taken for the future, for the suppression of piracy generally. This despatch has, however, not yet come to hand, and I have written to press for it.
As regards the case of the steam-ship "Sainam," a force of 900 soldiers under Admiral Li, an energetic officer, is still scouring the country in the neighbourhood of the scene of the outrage. Over seventy arrests have been made, but it is candidly acknowledged that the bulk of these are of men concerned in other deeds of violence, and that so far only four of the "Sainam" pirates have been arrested. There is little doubt in my mind that the rest of the pirates have scattered, and are in hiding, probably at Fatshan, Canton, Hong Kong, and Macao. Rewards have been offered for their
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