}
(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
[B]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[9419]
No. 1.
573
[March 132 533 SECTOR 10 APR 07,
FR 07
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 23.)
(No. 54. Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, January 30, 1907. THE exclusive protectorate over Catholic missionaries in the East which France exercised for fully a quarter of a century after the Tien-tsin Treaty of 1858 has undergone considerable modifications of recent years. The attitude of the French Government towards the Church in France is reacting to some extent on the situation in the East, and the improved relations between the Italian Government and the Vatican have also probably contributed to the change.
In 1888 Germany and Italy both made arrangements, embodied in an exchange of notes with the Tsung-li Yamên, in accordance with which the German and Italian missionaries in China were to be considered as coming within the jurisdiction of their respective Legations. Germany lost no time in bringing this agreement into operation, and the large German Mission in Shantung was at once placed under the charge of its own Legation, and served some years later as an important instrument in the advancement of German designs in that province.
Although Italy had, during the Franco-Chinese war of 1884, taken under her protection all the Catholic Missions in China, she made no attempt for a considerable time to enforce the compact of 1888. After the Boxer outbreak of 1900 the Italian Mission in Shansi pressed their claims for an indemnity through their own Legation, and the result was so satisfactory that the Bishop on his own authority transferred his allegiance from the French to the Italian Legation. For this he was recalled, but the Mission continued to remain under its own Legation. Since then the Italian Missions in Honan and Kiangsi have followed the same course, and the probability is that the French protectorate will soon be confined to the Belgians, who are perforce obliged to accept it in the absence of any prospect of protection on the part of their own authorities.
The change does not imply any abatement of the pretensions of Catholic missionaries in China, for the Italian Legation claims for its missionaries all the privileges conceded to the French by the Agreement of the 25th March, 1899.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
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