This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
271
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[37674]
(No. 191.)
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
[November 9.]
SECTION
45803 Red 27 NOV 27
(Telegraphic.) P.
Foreign Office, November 9, 1906.
I am glad to have received your telegram No. 209 of the 8th instant, in which you draw attention to certain appointments in the Imperial Maritime Customs in Manchuria. It appears to me that, unless these appointments are the beginning of insidious attempts to disorganize the service, they are not in themselves of a harmful nature.
All things considered, Sir R. Hart's explanations had best be accepted, provided that the appointments are his own doing, as stated, and are not the result of interference on the part of the Chinese authorities.
Some time ago we received the independent suggestion that a European Commissioner at a convenient centre might be given control over a group of less important posts.
[2226 -1]