2
Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (Limited), cannot allow confiscation of the » Company's property.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
L. C. HOPKINS.
(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governmekt.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
0.
34181 REC 139 [September Ep 07
SECTION 5.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Viceroy Yuan Shih K'ai to Consul-General Hopkins.
(Translation.) Sir,
Tien-tsin, July 14, 1907. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your note which has had my attention. The Chinese Engineering and Mining Company was originally founded as a Peiyang official concern, and our Government has never recognized its transformation into a Limited Liability Company. Some time since I ordered Taotai Chang Yi and the Customs Taotai to consult with the Representative of the Company with a view to devising some satisfactory scheme for winding-up the affairs of the Company which I could report to the throne to decide on, but as the matter has dragged on for two years without any solution coming into view, I have merely done my duty and exercised an authority which is rightly mine. My position, therefore, has been correct throughout.
I have, &c.
(Card of Viceroy Yuan.)
[30121]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received September 9.)
No. 364.)
Peking, July 24, 1907. Sir,
WITH reference to my despatch No. 336 of the 11th instant, reporting on con- stitutional reform in this country, I have the honour to inclose a translation of an Imperial Edict issued on the 11th instant, which professes to mark another stage towards the goal of constitutional government.
The Edict orders the establishment of a special office for the study and reform of all ceremonial observances practised in the domestic and social life of the people.
The effect of this measure will only become apparent when the deliberations of the new office are published. In the meanwhile it is regarded as a "job" on the part of the Board of Ceremonies, a Ministry which has been shorn of most of its functions in recent years, and which has devised this method of obtaining a grant from the Treasury of 20,000 taels (3,000) for initial expenses, and an annual allowance of 30,000 taels (4,5001.) for upkeep and salaries.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
J. N. JORDAN
(Translation.)
Inclosure in No. 1.
Imperial Ediet, dated July 11, 1907.
TO maintain the tranquillity of Rulers and the good government of subjects there is nothing superior to [the due observance of] ceremonies. Past Emperors of our dynasty have attached prime importance to the improvement and elucidation of the teaching of ceremonies. In the reigns of Chien Lung and Tao Kuang several revisions were made of the "Cyclopædia of Ceremonies" for the guidance of the people. At the present time the ceremonies proper in schools, in the army, in the treatment of strangers, need to be adapted to the times, and among the people mourning, sacrifices, the assumption of the cap of manhood, marriage, utensils, palanquins, and clothes all need to be brought into due order. Some time ago the Board of Ceremonies, after requesting the sanction of the throne, established an office for the study of ceremonies, and has now submitted for our perusal a plan which it has considered and drawn up. It is hereby commanded that its proposals be put into effect. It is the duty of the President and Vice-Presidents of the Board to guide the members of that office in considering ancient and modern times, making researches into the customs of the people, and discriminating among them till they are quite as they should be. They should then memorialize the throne, and ask for their scheme to be promulgated, so that all men may enter upon the right path. It is our earnest hope that "the unchanging rule will be rectified, and the people roused to virtue," thus doing their part towards our purpose of establishing a Constitution.
[2652 i-5]