Sixth year:
6
1. The system of registration to be put in force.
2. Provisional estimates of the national revenue and expenditure to be prepared.
3. Establishment of a Court for trying cases with regard to the administration of the country.
4. Establishment of Courts of Justice in prefectures, sub-prefectures, &c.
5. Preparations for the establishment of Courts of First Instance in towns and villages.
6. The new criminal laws to be put in force.
7. New laws with reference to commercial and civil cases to be issued.
8. A uniform system of local government in towns and villages to be organized.
9. A system of local government in sub-prefectures, &c., to be organized within a year,
10. A uniform system of police to be organized in towns and villages within a year.
Seventh year:
1. Preparation of a provisional national Budget.
2. Promulgation of Regulations for the preparation of general estimates.
3. The new official organization to be put in force provisionally in the capital and provinces.
4. A uniform system of local government to be organized in sub-prefectures, &c.
5. Courts of First Instance to be established within a year in towns and villages.
6. By this year at least 1 per cent. of the people should be able to read.
Eighth year:
1. The amount of the Imperial household expenditure to be fixed.
2. The reform of the organization of the bannermen and the abolition of the distinctions between them and Chinese to be completed.
3. An Audit Office to be established.
4. The system of preparing general estimates to be put in force.
5. Establishment of Courts of First Instance in towns and villages.
6. The new code of laws with reference to civil, commercial and criminal cases to be put in operation.
7. The organization of the police force in towns and villages to be completed.
8. By this year 2 per cent. of the people should be able to read.
Ninth year:
1. Constitutional government to be proclaimed.
2. Proclamation of an Imperial House Law.
3. Issue of Regulations with regard to the House of Representatives.
4. Announcement of election for Members of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament.
5. Election of above.
6. Preparation of a national Budget.
7. Preparation of the estimates for the coming year, to be discussed by the House of Representatives.
8. The new official organization to be put in force.
9. Institution of an Advisory Council.
10. By this year 5 per cent. of the people should be able to read.
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
281
C. O.
[November 24, 1907]
[35039]
(No. 519.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie.
Foreign Office, November 2, 1908.
I HAVE received your Excellency's despatch No. 393 of the 9th ultimo, in which you state that the French Minister for Foreign Affairs has inquired of you the strength of the British troops at present stationed in North China and the intentions of His Majesty's Government as regards their withdrawal.
I inclose a copy of a letter from the War Office, showing the numbers of British and Indian troops, exclusive of the Legation guard at Peking, stationed in North China on the 1st September last.
On the question of their withdrawal, your Excellency may inform M. Pichon that His Majesty's Government do not consider that the time has yet arrived when the general outlook in China makes it desirable to take any immediate step in that direction, and that, in any case, a decision on the question has been postponed until the arrival in England in the spring of his Excellency Tong Shao-yi, one of the objects of whose mission to certain countries is, it is understood, to ask for the withdrawal of the foreign garrisons in North China.
&c.
I am,
(Signed) E. GREY.
* War Office, October 26, 1908.
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