C
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[7421]
No. 1.
[March 7.]
SECTION 2,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 7.)
(No. 39.)
(Telegraphic.) P.
SHANGHAE incident.
Peking, March 6, 1907.
In reply to your telegram No. 25 of the 5th instant, I have the honour to state that, so far as I know, there is no reason to anticipate any disturbance at Shanghae, nor do I attach importance to statement of Drummond, as reported in your telegram under reply. He is Counsel to the Viceroy, and has gone up to Nanking in company with the Taotai of Shanghae to discuss the matter with his Excellency.
I have been asked by the Wai-wu Pu to send a Delegate to Nangking to come to a settlement of the question with the Taotai of Shanghae on the basis of reciprocal compensation to the sufferers, whether British or Chinese. This I declined to accept, but I repeated an offer previously made by me. This offer was subject to approval of His Majesty's Government, and to the effect that, should the Chinese Government persist in their demand for compensation for Chinese sufferers, the Judge of His Majesty's Supreme Court and the present Shanghae Taotai should hold in Shanghae a joint investigation of the whole case from the outset, including the conduct of the late Taotai. I repeated that our claim for compensation rested on the fact that the agitation had been fomented with official cognizance, and that the rioters had come from outside the Settlement, and that His Majesty's Government was prepared to prove this.
I shall have a further interview with the Wai-wu Pu on the 8th March, and I should gladly, in view of the good relations which now prevail at Shanghae, welcome any reasonable offer of a settlement of this case, but we cannot abandon our claim, and nothing short of such a concession would satisfy them.
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