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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 439
C. O.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[3504]
Ї
(No. 3.) Sir,
6761
[January 27.]
RECE
SECTION 3,
Rest 25 09
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 27.)
Peking, January 4, 1909. REFERRING to my despatch No. 562 of the 18th December, I have the honour to inclose copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's Consul at Chinan-fu, reporting on the action taken by the Chinese authorities in Shantung, in connection with the anti-German agitation.
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The inflammatory leaflets mentioned in previous despatelies were traced to an Association of Shantung students in Japan, and the Governor, in requesting the Chinese Minister in Tokió by letter to restrain the mischievous activity of theso youths, takes considerable pains to expose their errors and to justify the action of the Chinese Government in respect of the German Mining Agreement. His Excellency's statement that the number of zones has been reduced to one does not tally with the text of this Agreement, which was published in a Peking newspaper in October 1997, translation of which is inclosed for your information. As you will notice, according to Article 3 of that document, seven areas not exceeding 30 square li, each were to be selected in the original five zones within a period of two years.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN,
(No. 22.) Sir,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Acting Consul Giles to Sir J. Jordan.
Chinan, December 17, 1908. IN continuation of my despatch No. 20 of the 1st December, I have the honour to report further on the action taken by the Chinese authorities, and especially by the Governor, in connection with the anti-German agitation in this province.
There can be no doubt that, but for the decided attitude adopted from the very beginuing by the Governor, the agitation would have assumed much more serious proportions than has actually been the case. From the first his Excellency has made it abundantly clear that he would not be coerced by popular clamour into taking steps to obtain the cancellation of the duly ratified and perfectly valid Mining Agreement between the Germans and the Chinese; while, at the same time, he appears to have been quietly endeavouring, as far as lay in his power, to restrict the actual exercise of the powers conferred by the Agreement. The instructions issued by him for the suppression of the anti-German campaign are so stringent that, even in the remoter parts of the province, it is only carried on with the utmost secrecy; while in Chinan itself and the immediate neighbourhood it seems to have been all but crushed out.
One of the favourite methods of the agitators is to post from abroad, or from other parts of China, anonymous leaflets addressed to residents in various districts in Shantung. The Chimo Magistrate recently reported to the Governor that leaflets advocating an anti-German boycott (of which I gave a summary in my despatch No. 20) had been received in his district, which is immediately to the north of Tsingtau, by post from Shanghae; whereupon his Excellency issued on the 28th November a strongly-worded circular to all the Magistrates in the province, warning them that they were personally responsible for the preservation of law and order within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, and that it was above all incumbent on them to neglect no measures for the protection of foreign Missions, railways, and mines.
Shortly afterwards the Magistrate of Kuan-t'ao-hsien, in the Tung-ch'ang Pre- fecture, reported that various Notables in his district had received by post a number of anonymous leaflets in simple language, entitled, "How to turn disasters into blessings," which purported to come from "The Society of Shantung Students
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