This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
374
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Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ch'ing.
Your Highness,
Peking, October 3, 1906. IN a note of the 27th June Mr. Carnegie communicated to your Highness a list of names of officers and men in the service of the Chinese Government who exerted themselves to protect the lives and property of foreigners during the lamentable attack on the Missions at Nan Ch'ang in February last. I am now in receipt of a despatch from His Majesty's Consul at Kiukiang, complaining strongly of the unsatisfactory manner in which this part of the stipulations has been carried out by the Chinese authorities. I have marked against the names on the inclosed list the rewards which, according to Mr. Werner's Report, have been bestowed on the persons mentioned by Mr. Carnegie, and I have no hesitation in supporting the Consul's view that these rewards are inadequate.
I have the honour to request your Highness to be so good as to issue fresh instructions to the Governor of Kiangsi in regard to these rewards. I feel sure that it is only necessary for me to bring this matter to your Highness' notice to secure that the promise conveyed to Mr. Carnegie in your note of the 30th June will be fulfilled in a manner which will be satisfactory to His Majesty's Government.
(Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[38722]
Sir,
No. 1.'
[November 17.]
SECTION 10. C
45640
1 OFC 06
China Association to Foreign Office.--(Received November 17.)
159, Cannon Street, London, November 16, 1906, IT is with extreme reluctance that the China Association ventures again to express its inability to regard as adequate the assurance regarding the future of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs conveyed in your letter of the 6th October.
What is apprehended is not so much a definite act which can be decisively opposed, as subtle encroachment which it might be difficult to challenge at any one point, but which would be found after a lapse of time to have effected a material alteration in the circumstances that prevailed before the Edict of the 9th May was promulgated.
The contention of the Association is that changes have already been, and are currently being, made.
Paragraph 6 on p. 2 of the Memorandum submitted for the consideration of the Secretary of State on the 31st August scheduled changes already of serious import; and there have occurred since other incidents of less significance, each perhaps in itself, but all pointing in the direction of a purpose to alter the character and control of the service from a foreign to a Chinese basis. It is a case where the importance of each point becomes cumulatively greater.
The removal of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service from the control of the Foreign Board, and the subjection of the Inspector-General to a new and active Chinese authority--whether it be regarded as a transfer to the Board of Revenue or to a new and specially constituted Department--involves significant changes,
The right of direct correspondence with the Foreign Board, which the Inspector-General has enjoyed and exercised for forty years must, it would seem, be affected, and questions regarding foreign interests be discussed presumably in future between the Shui Wu Chu, or the Board of Revenue and the Wai-wu Pu, over his head.
There is a wide difference between the position of the Wai-wu Pu, which did little more than countersign Customs documents where necessary, or act as a Board of Advice to Sir R. Hart, and the position taken up by the Shui Wu Chu, which issues orders direct to the service.
It is said that the Commissioners are giving a further earnest of their purpose by requiring the submission to them by the Inspector-General of all official documents.
The mere fact that the Commissioners have had sumptuous offices prepared, and have allotted themselves large salaries payable out of the customs revenues, is a significant intimation to China and to foreign Powers that the Edict is not to remain a dead letter; and it requires but slight knowledge of the Chinese character to realize that one effect of this self-assertion will be to weaken the position of the foreign Commissioner and staff, vis-à-vis the Chinese authorities at the ports. The attitude of the new authority towards the Inspector-General will be reflected in the attitude of the Taotais towards the foreign Commissioners.
The previous rule was that, in case of difference between the Taotai and foreign Commissioner, the latter was to give way, but the Taotai had to justify his ruling to the Tsung-li Yamên (Wai-wu Pu), and the provision was sufficient to insure accord. That safeguard is now destroyed.
It is said, again, that the Commissioners have instructed the Taotais to report each on the capacity and character of his foreign colleague.
It is reported that they purpose changing the periodicity of the returns of trade from the foreign to the Chinese year, Much sanctity attaches to the Chinese calendar the acceptance or rejection of which by a tributary State meant admission of vassalage But statistics based on years varying in length from 350 to 380 days would be worth little for purposes of comparison.
or rebellion.
It is difficult to form an adequate opinion of a document from a précis. But, so far as an impression can be formed, the sketch of Sir Robert Hart's promised Circular in the "Times" Peking correspondent's telegram of the 16th October confirms the Association's apprehension that it would prove futile. The Circular appears to contain, in fact, an admission rather than an assurance, and to justify the opinion expressed in the
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