4
It is not, however, only because of the very material loss which the acceptance of the French proposals would entail that the Company finds itself unable to accede to the French demands; it is because the Company is pledged to the British, Japanese, and German Governments to equality of treatment in all respects for their respective nationals, and is therefore unable to come to an agreement with the French Govern- ment by which French citizens would be placed at an advantage over those of any other Power.
That is the reason why the Company cannot consent to the transfer of further lands to the French Government beyond those near the railway station of which it already has the use, nor to the use of those lands for private and commercial purposes.
The Directors of the Company therefore beg to request that His Majesty's Government should urge upon the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs the acceptance of a similar arrangement to that made with the Governments of Japan and Germany.
0
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[40464]
No. 1.
Foreign Office to Admiralty.
532
C
24 DEC 07 [December 11.]
SECTION 1.
(Confidential.) Sir,
Foreign Office, December 11, 1907. WITH reference to the letter from this Department of the 5th instant, I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to inform you that on the 7th instant Sir J. McLeavy Brown, the Councillor of the Chinese Legation, called here to state that the Chinese Minister had received a further telegram from the Viceroy of Canton as to the presence of British gun-boats in the Canton River. Meetings had been held, the people were excited and looked upon the dispatch of the British vessels as a hostile act, which increased the difficulty of the Viceroy's position, and made it less easy for him to deal with them, though he was most anxious to settle the piracy question in a satisfactory way, and had been ordered by Yuan Shih Kai to do so.
Sir J. McLeavy Brown was informed in reply that though no hope could be held out of the British gun-boats being withdrawn, their dispatch was in no sense intended as a hostile act against China, that it was not meant that they should hamper the Viceroy in the steps he was taking to deal with piracy, and that no active measures would be taken against the pirates on our side for the present.
I am to forward, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of a telegram, dated the 8th December, on the subject which has been received from His Majesty's Minister at Poking, and I am to suggest that, if their Lordships see no objection, a further telegram should be sent to the Commander- in-chief on the China Station to the effect that, while the patrol should not be relaxed, it would be advisable that British vessels should not for the present proceed higher up the river than they may already be till it is seen whether the action now being taken will induce the Viceroy to make a satisfactory settlement.
I am at the same time to transmit a copy of a further telegram from His Majesty's Minister at Peking, dated the 9th instant, stating the terms of a com- munication which he proposes to address to the Wai-wu Pu in reply to semi-official representations from them, together with a copy of the reply which the Secretary of State has returned to it.‡
[2769 -1]
I am, &e. (Signed)
F. A. CAMPBELL.
* Sir J. Jordan, No. 212 (Telegraphic), December 8, 1907. Sir J. Jordan, No. 214 (Telegraphic), December 9, 1907. To Sir J. Jordan, No. 135 (Telegraphic), December 10, 1907.