[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Gover

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AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

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No. 1.

November 19127

SECTION 2.

JAN 08

Admirally to Foreign Office.-(Received November 19.)

(Confidential.) Sir,

Admiralty, November 19, 1907. WITH reference to your letters of the 31st ultimo and of the 16th instant, I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to forward herewith, for the information of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, copy of a telegram, dated the 17th instant, and of a letter, dated the 29th September, with inclosures, which have been received from the Commander-in-chief, China, respecting the measures which he proposes to take for the suppression of piracy in the waters round Canton.

I am also to forward copy of telegraphic instructions which their Lordships propose to send to the Commander-in-chief, subject to the concurrence or observations of the Secretary of State, which it is requested may be notified at the earliest date possible.

I am, &e.

(Signed) W. GRAHAM GREENE.

(Telegraphic.) P.

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

Vice-Admiral Sir A. Moore to Admiralty.

Hong Kong, November 17, 1907.

I AM leaving on the 18th November for Canton for a preliminary interview with Chinese Viceroy.

I shall defer further action, in the event of negotiations being unsatisfactory, until

I receive reply to my letter of the 29th September.

(Confidential.) Sir,

Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

Vice-Admiral Sir A. Moore to Admiralty.

"Kinsha," at Chenglin, September 29, 1907. WITH reference to Admiralty telegram dated the 3rd August, 1907, and to my submission dated the 10th August, 1907, be pleased to inform their Lordships that, in company with the British Minister, I visited the Wai-wu Pu at Peking on the 24th instant to discuss the subject of the suppression of piracy in the waterways around Canton. The Minutes of the interview are inclosed.

2. With regard to their Lordships' telegram above referred to, I should " had not reached explain that the report of the piracy of the "Ki Cheong me when my reply was sent, nor was 1 then aware that the Chinese Government was backing out of its undertaking to provide the four armed steam-launches to be placed under the control of the Imperial Maritime Customs, and that, in consequence, Sir John Jordan had declined to accept the new Traffic Regulations excepting only as supplementary to the original scheme.

I

Had I been aware of these facts my reply would have been differently worded. should have advocated a final appeal by Sir John Jordan and myself to the Wai-wu Pu to carry out their engagements, with an intimation that failure to do so, together with

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