IAFD.
this Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL,
[25992]
No. 1.
[July 27.]
SECTION 4.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 27.)
(No. 257.) Sir,
Peking, June 5, 1908. ON the 5th ultimo I instructed His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, as directed in your telegram No. 74 of the 4th ultimo, to make friendly representations to the Viceroy respecting the Japanese boycott in the terms of my telegram No. 90 of the 2nd ultimo.
I now have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch from Mr. Mansfield reporting the measures which he took to carry out these instructions. His action was, I submit, the best possible for the purpose of drawing the Viceroy's attention to the views of His Majesty's Government on the subject, while avoiding undue publicity and a consequently probable anti-British agitation in the native press, which at the present time is only too ready to seize upon any pretext for a newspaper crusade against foreigners. That the attitude of Great Britain has not escaped the notice of the newspaper world is shown by the press extract quoted by Mr. Mansfield, and I am inclined to think that paragraphs in the "South China Morning Post" and other newspapers may well have been inspired by those whose interest it is to make the public in China believe that His Majesty's Government are ready to give the Japanese Government greater support in this matter than is really the case. Owing to the present state of native opinion, which is strongly opposed to anything resembling foreign interference, any further action would in all likelihood react unfavourably on British interests, and I consider that the representations already made will have had the desired effect of satisfying the Japanese Government without wounding Chinese susceptibilities.
I am sending a copy of Mr. Mansfield's despatch to His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokio.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN,
(No. 17.) Sir,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Consul-General Mansfield to Sir J. Jordan.
Canton, May 21, 1908. REFERRING to your telegram No. 12 of the 5th instant and my reply of the 6th instant on the subject of the Japanese boycott, I have the honour to report that at an interview with the Viceroy's Secretary, Taotai Wen Tsung Yao, I informed him that His Majesty's Government desired me to represent to his Excellency the many objections to the boycott, the loss of trade it was causing to both the countries concerned, and the censure implied by it on the Central Government of China. Such censure could only tend to excite the ignorant and uneducated masses to revolutionary ideas, and disastrous consequences might be the result. I further said that his Excellency had issued satisfactory Proclamations, but that the native press continued to give exaggerated reports of the proportions of the movement, and were constantly alluding to the "Tatsu Maru incident" under the provocative name of "China's disgrace." I thought if this could be stopped the boycott would gradually die out, and I told Taotai Wen that I hoped he would communicate my views in strict confidence to the Viceroy--that the desire of my Government was merely, as a friend of both China and Japan, to recommend that a stop should be put to a state of things which is injurious to the interests of both nations. My reason for doing this through him and not through the Viceroy direct was that a personal interview with his Excellency would surely get into the native papers and a wrong construction possibly put on my action.
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