[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[33678]
No. 1.
179
[October 6.]
SECTION 12. C
42969
REC
Rs 22 NOV O
Mr. Carnegie to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 6.)
(No. 348. Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, August 18, 1906. I HAVE the honour to inclose herewith copy of the note which I addressed to the Chinese Government in accordance with the instructions contained in your telegram No. 145 of the 11th instant, relative to the establishment of Chinese Customs stations in Manchuria.
'I
The Japanese Minister paid me visit the day I received your telegram, of which gave him the sense. He expressed his satisfaction, and said that he had already written in much the same terms to the Wai-wu Pu. He stated that Dalny would certainly be opened as a free port on the 1st September, but that the date of the establishment of a custom-house would depend on what arrangements were come to between Russia and China in regard to customs in North Manchuria.
I saw my American colleague, who told me he had received instructions from his Government similar to mine, and that he proposed to communicate them verbally to the Wai-wu Pu, to whom he had already often spoken on the same subject. He said that in the course of a conversation with the Japanese Minister the latter had announced the intention of his Government to avail themselves of a provision contained in an Additional Agreement between the Eastern Railways Company and China by which the Company were authorized to collect customs duties at Dalny. Mr. Rockbill had replied that he was sorry to hear it, as such an arrangement was open to obvious objections, and would create an unfavourable impression in America.
A few days later I called on Mr. Hayashi and asked him for information about the above mentioned Agreement, of which, I said, I had only recently learnt the existence. He replied that this Agreement had been signed in 1898 at St. Petersburgh, and had been communicated to Baron Komura last winter when he was in Peking. He thought his Government intended to abide by its terms, unless the Chinese raised strong objections, in which case be personally would advocate the institution at Dalny of an arrangement similar to that at Tsingtau, where the Imperial Maritime Customs collect the duties, of which 20 per cent. go to the German Administration. He had heard that shortly before the war the Chinese Government had suggested that the Customs at Dalny should be intrusted to a Chinese official who was not a member of the Customs Service, but he could assure me that his Government would never consent to such a proposal.
As I had the honour to report in my telegram No. 154 of the 18th instant, I supported my note at an interview with the Wai-wu Pu. Mr. Tong informed me that the Governor at Mukden had been called on for a report as to where the Customs stations in North Manchuria had best be placed, and that as soon as he replied the Russian Minister would be approached on the question. His Excelleney remarked that, so long as Dalny was a free port without customs, British goods could enter Manchuria by that route with the same freedom as Russian or other goods came in from the north. There was therefore no cause for complaint from any one except the Chinese Govern- ment, who were meanwhile losing their customs revenues. I replied that there were important British interests at Newchwang which would certainly suffer should the trade be diverted from that port to Dalny, and I therefore hoped that the whole question would be earnestly considered and settled at an early date.
Mr. Tong then spoke with some bitterness of the proceedings of the Japanese in Manchuria, to whom he attributed bad faith in the fulfilment of their engagements with China. He said that they were now proposing conditions for restoring the administra- In fact, rather than tion of Newchwang to China which were quite inadmissible. accept them, China would prefer to abandon that port altogether to Japan. He would not tell me the nature of the conditions. Then, in regard to the customs revenues, - his Excellency continued, which Russia and Japan had collected during the time they respectively occupied Newchwang, the former had some 200,0001, which she was ready
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