Paras
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 568
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[7662]
No. 1.
[Márch X]
SECTION 20.533
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 9.)
(No. 25. Confidential.) Sir,
LOR
AREGE 10 APR 07
Peking, January 15, 1907. IN my despatch No. 429 of the 23rd October, 1906, I had the honour to inform you that the French Minister expected to receive telegraphic instructions from Paris which would enable him to inform his colleagues in about a month from that date that the French Government had given its consent to the scheme for the improvement of the Taku Bar.
The instructions did not arrive at the appointed time, and the matter remained in abeyance until the beginning of last month, when His Majesty's Consul-General at Tien-tsin addressed me an inquiry on the subject on behalf of the leading British promoter of the scheme, Mr. J. M. Dickinson.
From frequent conversations which I had with the French Minister, I gathered that he was not personally opposed to the measure, but that he found it hard to allay the apprehensions of his Government, who had apparently received information from other quarters. One of these, it is believed, was M. Guiotton, the Engineer-in-chief to the Hai-ho Conservancy Board, between whom and his employers there seems
to be considerable friction.
Some little time later, M. Bapst communicated to me the accompanying copies of a reply made by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs to the United States' Ambassador in Paris and of telegraphic instructions which he had himself received on the subject.
I took exception to the correctness of one statement in the former document. M. Pichon stated in the concluding paragraph of his despatch that the Hai-ho Con- servancy Board had sufficient means at its disposal to complete the work of removing the bar. In a note, copy of which I have the honour to inclose, I informed my French colleague that the funds in hand for possible use on the improvement of the bar did not exceed 65,000 taels, which would barely be sufficient for the purchase of the necessary dredger.
The instructions to the French Minister indicated a desire to have an alteration made in the composition of the Board of Reference, and on this point great difficulty was experienced in meeting the French views, as any attempt to effect the desired change would, His Majesty's Consul-General assured me, have led to the abandonment of the whole project. The French seem to have been convinced that the composition of the Board of Reterence could be so manipulated as to enable the local Lighter Company to command a majority on the Board and to effect just such a partial removal of the bar as suited their interests. The French point of view is clearly expressed in a private note to me of the 28th December from M. Bapst, copy of which I have the honour to transmit.
After further correspondence, with which I think it unnecessary to trouble you, M. Bapst finally instructed the French Consul-General at Tien-tsin to address an official letter of inquiry to His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General with the view of eliciting the assurances which had already been furnished to him privately. A copy of this communication and of Mr. Hopkins' reply is inclosed herewith. Mr. Hopkins explained that the functions of the Board of Reference were purely appellate and that it had no initiative, the execution of the work resting entirely with the Hai-ho Conservancy Board.
Although the explanations furnished by His Majesty's Consul-General did not exactly fulfil the conditions required by the French Government, M. Bapst informed me that, if I indorsed the terms of Mr. Hopkins' letter, he would no longer refuse to notify the French Government's assent to the scheme, and I accordingly took it upon myself to do this in a note, copy of which I have the honour to transmit to you herewith.
[2418 -10]
B
T