(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)
I encountering difficulties on the frontiers, and requesting that such persons might be prevented from journeying in regions where the nature of the country made it difficult for the Chinese authorities to afford adequate protection. If travellers provided with passports were obliged to pass through such territory, the Viceroy begged that they should be directed to keep as much as possible to the main roads, and, wherever feasible, obtain an escort from the local officials.
Mr. Fox informed the Viceroy in reply that no British subjects were permitted to travel in the interior of China without passports, and he added that if his Excellency would inform him when any district was unsafe for travel, he would warn British subjects to avoid that district until such time as order was re-established.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[1048]
(No. 556.) Sir,
No. 1.
426
[January 11.]
SECTION 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey. (Received January 11, 1908.)
Peking, November 27, 1907.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 532 of 13th November, I have the honour to inclose copies of further Minutes drawn up by Mr. Brown, Agent-General of the Peking Syndicate, describing his eighth and ninth Conferences with the Shansi Delegates on the subject of the Syndicate's interests in that Province.
In my previous despatches I have described the steps whereby these discussions have been confined to the question of buying out the Syndicate, in spite of Mr. Brown's offer of co-operation. Your telegram No. 122 of 14th November authorized me to assist in such a solution, and in my reply telegram No. 199 of 15th November I had the honour to explain how matters stood at that date. On the same day I addressed a note to Prince Ching, copy of which is inclosed, urging that if the Province insists on redemption, it must be prepared to pay the Syndicate's price.
The meeting between Mr. Brown and Ting Tajen, fixed for 16th November, was postponed by mutual consent in order to allow further time for the Wai-wu Pu to take action. On the 19th instant I inquired at the Board whether they had brought any pressure to bear on the Shansi Delegates, and was informed by Liang Tajon that they had sent for the chief Representative (Ting Tajen), who had stated that a great disparity still existed between the amount required and the sum which Shansi was able to raise.
I warned his Excellency that the forthcoming meeting of 21st November would probably be the last, unless the provincial Delegates made a more reasonable offer, and that the onus of making a settlement would then fall on the Wai-wu Pu.
From Mr. Brown's Minutes it will be seen that no progress was made at the Conference of the 21st, and the breaking off of negotiations was only averted by the suggestion that Ting Tajen and Mr. Brown should have a private talk on the following day.
I understand that in this private conversation Ting Tajen suggested the possibility of increasing the Chinese offer to 2,200,000 taels, say £330,000. At the ensuing official Conference of 25th November he urged Mr. Brown to accept this sum "as a basis," and upon the refusal of the latter to do so, the negotiations terminated. On the following day (26th November) I inquired at the Wai-wu Pu what action the Board now proposed to take. I reproached the Ministers for having apparently neglected to strengthen the hands of Ting Tajen, who was specially appointed to settle this matter, and reminded them that His Majesty's Government would look to the Board to see that this mission was effectively carried out.
The Grand Secretary Na fully admitted that Ting Tajen must reach a settlement of the case. He had been summoned to Peking under Imperial Decree for that purpose, and could not, therefore, cast his duties aside. The Board was not yet aware that negotiations with Mr. Brown had been broken off, and would send for Ting Tajen to report upon the circumstances. They understood that it was a mere question of figures. The Syndicate wanted more than the people of Shansi could give, and his Excellency appealed to me to help in reconciling the two extremes. The province of Shansi had experienced great kindness in the past from England. Thirty years ago the Shansi famine was relieved by British subscriptions, and in 1900 the mission indemnities due by that province were foregone by British Missionary Societies. Shansi entertained profound feelings of gratitude towards England, and my intervention on its behalf in this matter of the Peking Syndicate would be highly appreciated in the province.
I replied that I had no belief whatever in the gratitude of Shansi for past acts of goodwill, and that if such feelings were entertained in the province, expression was now being given to them in a most singular manner. An attempt was being made to set aside an Agreement at the cheapest possible price, and the Central Government,
* Not printed.
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