This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C. 0.
3844
[November 19.]
LEGE 39 JAN 07.
SECTION
134
[38939]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received November 19.)
(No. 223.) (Telegraphic.) P.
SHANGHAE Mixed Court.
Peking, November 19, 1906.
Please see Mr. Carnegie's despatch No. 352 of the 21st August. The foreign Representatives have received official intimation from the Wai-wu Pu that they are ready to accept the draft Amendment to the Rules, with a few minor alterations.
I gathered, when I was in Shanghae, that the Municipal Council feared that if the present Amendments, the purport of which was indirectly known, were accepted, the Chinese would be entitled to claim the custody of male prisoners, which has for the past forty years been in the hands of the Council. The latter would prefer adherence to the 1869 Rules, and to the practice of the Mixed Court as established by mutual consent.
I have carefully considered the Rules of 1869 and the Amendments now proposed, and am of opinion that a grave question is raised by the apprehension of the Council, which is not altogether groundless.
Since the date of the Shanghae Consular Body's original draft, on which the Amendments are based, the conditions appear to have changed. Subject to your approval, I would propose to forward the Amendments to Sir Pelham Warren and request him to obtain confidentially the views of Sir Havilland de Sausmarez and the British members of the Municipal Council as to what the practical effect of the Amendments would be.
A copy of the latter has been forwarded to the German Consul by Baron von der Goltz.
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