Your Excellency,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Peking Syndicate to Sir E. Satow.
Tien-tsin, February 5, 1906.
I HAVE the honour to report that, in obedience to your Excellency's suggestion conveyed in Mr. Robertson's letter of the 16th ultimo, I waited upon his Excellency Tong Shao-yi on the morning of the 23rd ultimo, and arranged an interview with his Excellency at the Wai-wu Pu for 2:30 P.M. on the 30th ultimo. His Excellency Na Tung was mentioned as likely to be present and some representative gentry from Shansi.
On the 30th ultimo at the time appointed I proceeded to the Wai-wu Pu, and was at once conducted to a room where I found the Shansi Gentry Messrs. Liu and Li with their own interpreter waiting, and had a brief chat with them. In a few minutes their Excellencies Tong Shao-yi, Chou, Lei, and Chu came in, and we almost at once proceeded to business. His Excellency Na Tung was not present.
To facilitate matters I submitted the statement in English and Chinese which your Excellency had previously perused, and of which I now inclose copies. This was read attentively by all. When the reading was concluded, his Excellency Tong Shao-yi asked the Shansi gentlemen what they had to say. They said they wished to know about the term of sixty years—when it commenced. I said from the time the permit was issued. They asked why the Syndicate had been so long in starting operations. I said the reasons were obvious. First, we were driven out by the Boxer troubles and returned more slowly than we had come to begin with. Then we waited for the railway to be constructed, as it would be no use digging coal with no means of carrying it away. This railway was now nearing completion, and consequently we were in a position to apply for a permit. They asked if I thought we were entitled to delay thirty or forty years. I said "No"; that or even twenty years would be unreasonable, but I considered the time that had elapsed not to be unreasonable in the exceptional circumstances. The point dropped.
The Shansi gentlemen then raised the question of the Syndicate's position in the matter. Was it not an Italian Company originally? I said that as far as I knew the Peking Syndicate had always been a British Association. Mr. Luzatti, as I understood, came to China first on his own account. He obtained concessions, went to Europe, and then came again to China as Agent-General of the Peking Syndicate to take up these concessions, and in that capacity had signed the Agreements. His Excellency Tong asked if I was prepared to make the declaration that the Peking Syndicate had always been British and never Italian. I said, "Yes; as far as I knew the Peking Syndicate had always been British."
Next, his Excellency Tong took the Agreement and suggested that we should discuss it Article by Article. We came at once to the term "chuan pan" (sole right). It was admitted that the English text conveyed the sole right, but their Excellencies unanimously maintained that the Chinese expression "chuan pan" was not the equivalent. I pointed out that the Tsung-li Yamên had stamped the English version which gave the sole right. We argued the point at great length but for the most part in the same terms. We each held to our respective views. His Excellency Tong Shao-yi asked the Shansi Gentry if they had any suggestion to relieve the deadlock. They had none. His Excellency then said they would like to consult again among themselves, and would meet each other in two days. Meantime I could return to Tien-tsin. I said I would wait three days in the hope of hearing something.
On the 2nd instant, not having heard anything further I came down here, but I propose to revisit Peking about the 5th to endeavour to advance the matter another stage.
I have, &c.
(Signed) GEORGE BROWN, Agent-General.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Statement by Mr. G. Brown.
HIS Excellency the British Minister, having protested on behalf of the Peking Syndicate against the refusal of his Excellency the Shansi Governor to grant the application of the Syndicate for a permit to open coal-mines in the Pingting Chou district as provided by Article of the Agreement between the Shansi Bureau of Trade and the Peking Syndicate, and natives having opened new mines in this region contrary to the sole right vested in the Syndicate by the same Article 1 of the same Agreement, the Agent-General has, on the invitation of his Excellency Tong Shao-yi and with the approval of his Excellency the British Minister, come to discuss the matter at the Board of Foreign Affairs.
It will be well to examine the question of sole right first. Whether the Chinese or English text be taken the meaning is clear.
"Chuan pan" means that the holder of the concession has the privilege of working it, and no one else. The Article sets out that the Shansi Bureau of Trade asked the Governor of Shansi to grant them the sole right, &c.; that the Governor sanctioned the request, and that whatever was granted by the Governor was transferred to the Peking Syndicate for the space of sixty years. There is no ambiguity whatever, and this transfer made by the Shansi Bureau of Trade was approved by the Tsung-li Yamên, stamped with their seal, and authorized by Imperial Edict dated the 17th May, 1898. Could legalization be more definite, more solid, or fixed by a higher mandate than this!
So rare is it among respectable Chinese merchants for one of them to repudiate a bargain or to fail in fulfilling a contract, that their commercial integrity is famous throughout the civilized world. Is the political reputation of the country to take a lower level? Is it to be universally made known that a concession, formally granted and ratified by the Government is liable to be withdrawn or cancelled or modified at any time if interested persons merely stand up and say that it is inconvenient or disadvantageous? Such an innovation would cut away the roots of all security, and deprive official transactions of that basis of confidence which should ever be their main strength. The Agent-General does not believe that the Chinese Government would adopt a course of this sort with an Agreement solemnly concluded, even if it proved to be injurious, and in this case the Agent-General will presently show that the Agreement entered into with the Syndicate is likely to be highly beneficial to the inhabitants of Shansi, to the people of China generally, and to the Chinese Government.
Let us come next to the refusal by the Shansi Governor of the permit applied for. His Excellency may say that it has not been refused. Delay beyond reasonable limit and failure to issue at all are tantamount to absolute refusal. Not to grant is to refuse. Yet Article 1 of the Agreement lays down "maps with explanations shall be submitted to the Governor of Shansi that he may see the proposed works are not injurious to the place, and he shall report thereon to the Tsung-li Yamên for record, and at the same time issue a permit for the mines to be opened without the least delay." Has the Governor reported to the Wai-wu Pu (i.e., the Tsung-li Yamên) for record and at the same time issued a permit without the least delay? His Excellency's attitude would seem not to be in accord with the Agreement. Moreover, his Excellency impugns the validity of the words "chuan pan." In his anxiety to make the Agreement valueless, his Excellency takes away from these characters their true meaning of "sole control" and endeavours to substitute other meanings which it is to be assumed his Excellency's scholarship could, on consideration, not be able to indorse.
If "chuan pan" (sole right) did not mean "chuan ch'üan" (sole control) then the Agreement would be worthless, and all the trouble of the Bureau of Commerce in drawing it up, of the Tsung-li Yamên in signifying their approval, and of His August Majesty the Emperor in authorizing it by Imperial Decree, would have been taken over nothing, a position which would be absurd, and which is therefore untenable.
The words "chuan pan" (sole right) must, therefore, be taken to mean "chuan ch'üan" (sole control), and to exclude every one, whether foreign or Chinese, who did not at the time of signing the Agreement own mines already opened in the specified districts. Otherwise shafts might be sunk by any one at every available spot, and "chuan pan" (sole right) would have no significance whatever.
Therefore the Agent-General claims that the Syndicate, by the Agreement, received the sole right to open mines in the district mentioned, and that no one else has the right to do so. The causes which prevented the Syndicate from commencing...
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