This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[August 5.]
SECTION 3,
[26859]
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 107.) (Telegraphic.) P.
Foreign Office, August 5, 1908,
The estate of a man named MacDonogh, who is alleged to have been a British subject and who died at Harbin, has been administered by the Russian Consul-General at that place. The proceeds have been handed to His Majesty's Embassy at St. Petersburgh by the Russian Government.
The Russian Consulate-General at Harbin is said to be in possession of the deceased's passport and birth certificate. If we ask for these papers without making any reservation, it might seem to imply that we acquiesce in the Russian claim to exercise jurisdiction at Harbin over British subjects. I therefore propose for the present merely to thank the Russian Government for the action which their Consul-General took in the absence of any British Consular Representative at Harbin.
What are your views?
Can you ascertain any particulars as to the circumstances of MacDonogh's death or as to his identity?
[1905 e-3]
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