[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
82
[June 29.]
SECTION 4.
Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ch'ing.
Your Highness,
Peking, February 27, 1908.
ON the 15th February the "Official Gazette" published an Imperial Rescript issued on the previous day to the Wai-wu Pu and the Army Board, in response to a Memorial of the former Department, whereby the degraded Brigade-General, Yang Hang-li, is reinstated in rank, and the condemnation "never to be re-employed" is withdrawn.
This officer was Brigade-General at Ta Tung-fu, in Shansi, in 1900, when, as a result of the Boxer disturbances, six British missionaries, two men and four women were murdered in that locality.
On account of his failure to protect these missionaries, the Brigade-General Yang was denounced by the foreign Representatives, and by an Imperial Decree of the 19th August, 1901, he was condemned to immediate degradation and precluded from all further employment.
Since he has now been reinstated in rank, and appears by newspaper reports to be again employed officially, my Government will desire to learn the reasons which have led your Highness' Board to apply to the throne for a remission of the sentence imposed in 1900, under an Imperial Decree, which is mentioned under Article 2 (a) of the Protocol of 1901.
I avail, &c.
(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
(Translation.) Sir,
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Wai-wu Pu to Sir J. Jordan,
Peking, May 9, 1908.
WITH regard to the case of Yang Hung-li, who was restored to the rank of Brigadier-General, your Excellency stated in a recent interview that if the Chinese Government did not employ him, the British Government would, of course, take a reasonable view of the occurrence.
As your Excellency is aware, Yang Hung-li has been attached to the staff of General Chiang. The Board have now written to General Chiang, telling him to call upon Yang Hung-li to resign, and to serve in no other official capacity.
We avail, &c.
(Ministers of the Wai-wu Pu.)
CONFIDENTIAL.
[22272]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received June 29.)
(No. 202.) Sir,
Peking, May 7, 1908.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches Nos. 49 and 127 of the 28th January and the 6th March respecting the dispute between the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company and the local French authorities with regard to certain lands in French occupation in Ching Wang Tao.
I have conferred on two occasions since the receipt of these despatches with Major Nathan on this question, and have found him to share the views of his Company that there is no possibility of arriving at a settlement here if the negotiations are to be limited by the Memorandum of the 4th July, 1907.
Acting on the suggestion of Mr. Leech, Major Nathan took means of ascertaining indirectly if the French Minister was prepared in any way to modify the attitude he has invariably maintained towards the Company in this matter, and the result convinced him that it would be useless to make further overtures to M. Bapst.
To insure that there could be no mistake about M. Bapst's views, I myself alluded to the question in the course of conversation with him a few days ago, and found him quite opposed to any amicable arrangement with the Company. He said that, if there was an upheaval in China, Ching Wan Tao and the land in question would doubtless again be occupied by the foreign Powers, while, on the other hand, if the country attained a settled state of tranquillity, France would be bound to return the land to the Chinese Government. This is the veiled threat against which I had protested on previous occasions.
As a subsequent despatch will show you, the question of regularizing the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company's position and of the purchase by the Chinese Government of the Company's property at Ching Wan Tao is now under consideration, and a general solution on these lines would dispose of the dispute between the Company and the French Government. I think, therefore, and Major Nathan agrees, that it is desirable to leave the smaller and comparatively unimportant matter in abeyance until we see whether there is any prospect of arriving at an arrangement of the general question. This is the more necessary as the French Minister would doubtless not hesitate, as he has done before, to appeal to the Chinese authorities and support their view that the Company's title to the Ching Wan Tao land rests on an insecure basis.
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
[1819-4]