2
Chengtu to Yunnan-fu, recently travelled by the late Viceroy Hsi Liang, is on the. route of the proposed Yünnan-Szechuan Railway (see March quarter's Intelligence Report, p. 21). It is supposed that, owing to the lateness of the season, M. Bons d'Anty has been obliged to curtail his tour, and is now on his way to Chengtu via the railway route. His movements are evidently being closely watched by the Chinese authorities, his reputation as an active and not over-scrupulous pioneer of French influence in Western China investing his proceedings with an importance which, if his past activities be measured by present results, would seem to be somewhat exaggerated.
I learn that his present journey is under the auspices of a French geographical and political Society named "L'Asie Française," who have voted a sum of 7,000 fr. (2807) towards the expenses of the expedition.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HARRY H. FOX.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[23388]
(No. 256.) Sir,
No. 1.
577
28491
[Jul RES
TRES 10 AUG 07 SECTION 2.
&
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 15.)
Peking, May 29, 1907. SINCE writing my despatch No. 208 of the 1st May, on the subject of the measures to be taken by the Chinese Government for the suppression of piracy in Canton waters, I have continued to keep the attention of the Wai-wu Pu steadily directed to this question.
On the 14th May I informed the Grand Secretaries Na Tung and Ch'u Hung Chi, in the course of an interview, that I had recently spoken to Sir Robert Hart on the subject, and was surprised to learn from him that he still had no instructions whatever from the Revenue Council (Shui-wu Ch'u) respecting the four rovenue cruisers which I had been assured were to be purchased and placed under his control.
The Grand Secretaries blamed the Revenue Council for the delay, and promised to press that Department to issue its instructions to the Inspector-General of Customs.
When I next saw his Excellency Na Tung on the 21st May I told him that I had seen Tong Ta-jên's successor in the Revenue Council, Mr. Liang Tun Yen (the Minister designate to America), a few days previously, and that Mr. Liang had professed total ignorance of the proposal for placing the cruisers under the control of the Customs.
The Grand Secretary deplored the existence of the Revenue Council, and argued for his own part that he had not unnaturally supposed that Tong Ta-jên would have explained to Mr. Liang how matters stood. He could only suppose that the crisis in his career through which Tong Ta-jên had recently passed had unnerved him, and caused him to forget his responsibilities in this question.
In a further conversation on 28th May his Excellency criticized rather severely the part which Tong Ta-jên had played. As a member of the Wai-wu Pu and of the Revenue Council, his colleagues in the former Department had presumed that he would answer for the adhesion of his coadjutor in the Shui-wu Ch'u, Tieh Liang, to any arrangements which had been determined upon by the Wai-wu Pu. It appeared, however, that T'ieh Liang had been opposed throughout to any preventive scheme entailing customs control, and that Tong Ta-jên had not disclosed this to the Wai-wu Pu. The Revenue Council had the money in readiness, but were awaiting a reply from the Viceroy at Canton, to whom it had been suggested that, as he was to furnish an officer for each vessel, he might prefer to finance the whole scheme. If he declined to do so, the funds held by the Revenue Council would be utilized.
I expressed my strong disappointment that a measure which I had understood to be determined upon by the Chinese Government was being subjected to such delay, and impressed upon his Excellency that I had reported to His Majesty's Government the arrangement which he had described to me on the 30th April, from which the Chinese Government could not recede.
His Excellency, while fully admitting the accuracy of the assurances I had attributed to him, was only able to ask me to await the Viceroy's answer respecting the funds, which would be communicated to me as soon as it arrived.
The situation is now further complicated by the removal of the Viceroy Chou Fu and the reappointment of Ts'en to Canton. Until the disorganization produced by this change has subsided there is little prospect of succeeding in giving effect to the scheme, but I shall not fail to urge strongly on the Wai-wu Pu the necessity of carrying out the arrangements as described in my previous despatch.
am sending copies of this despatch confidentially to the Governor of Hong Kong, Admiral Moore, and His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN,
[2570 p-2]