[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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# CHINA TRADE
## CONFIDENTIAL
[1036]
No. 1.
5508
[January 11.]
## SECTION 2
le 14 FEB 08
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 11, 1908.)
(No. 544.) Sir,
Peking, November 21, 1907. AS it appeared to me to be important to obtain a general idea of the commercial situation in Manchuria, I requested Sir Alexander Hosie, the Acting Commercial Attaché, to pay a visit to the principal centres of trade there in the autumn, and I have now the honour to transmit to you a Report recording his observations and conclusions.
I would specially invite your attention to the portion of this Report which deals with the projected railway-bridge across the Yalu and to the Japanese Settlement at Antung,
The former certainly seems to be a question calling for serious attention, and should His Majesty's Vice-Consul, who must have reached Antung by this time, concur in the views expressed by the American Vice-Consul there, I presume I should be justified in joining my American colleague in taking any steps which we may deem advisable to secure a modification of the Japanese proposal.
As regards the second point, it seems to be an anomaly that, at a port where there is such a scarcity of ground suitable for commercial purposes, a single Power should retain over 1,000 acres as a railway reserve, but there is little likelihood, I fear, that Japan will consent to surrender any portion of it for an international Settlement. The attitude of the Japanese Legation here is one of supreme dissatisfaction at the long delay which has occurred in settling outstanding Manchurian questions, and Japan fully realizes the value of maintaining her privileged position as a lever for promoting a general settlement.
Apart from the reasons which Sir Alexander Hosie gives for the unsatisfactory condition of Manchurian trade, there can, I think, be little doubt that too much importance was attached to the opening of the Manchurian trade marts, and that the present disappointment is largely due to the non-fulfilment of hopes which should never have been entertained.
As a matter of fact Manchuria was, in a great measure, open to trade before the recent Treaties were concluded, and it is rather to the development of railway communication and to improved methods of administration than to the establishment of additional trade marts that we have to look for any great expansion of trade in China.
If Sir Alexander Hosie's Report is printed, it would be useful if I could be supplied with, say, ten copies for distribution among the Consulates concerned.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
## Inclosure 1 in No. 1
Report by Sir A. Hosie, Acting Commercial Attaché, of a Visit to Manchuria.
## Lawless Manchuria
MANCHURIA can hardly be described as a law-abiding part of the Chinese Empire. The southern province of Fengtien has for many years been under the same system of Government as a Chinese province, and there law and order prevail; but robber bands have their haunts in the central and northern Provinces of Kirin and Hei-lung Chiang, and it is well known that arms and ammunition are smuggled into the country for their use. When on the evening of the 23rd September I
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