[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government] O
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[46749]
No. 1.
103
2765
[December 28.]
28 JAN 10
SECTION 5.
(No. 409.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received December 28.)
Peking, November 10, 1909. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith a report, drawn up by Mr. Seeds, summarising such despatches, recently received from His Majesty's consuls, as have not been sent you under separate cover.
Inclosure in No. 1.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN,
Report by Mr. Seeds.
Provincial Representative Assemblies,
THE ceremonies attendant on the opening of the various provincial assemblies, which mark China's first step in the direction of representative government, were generally celebrated with all due decorum on the 14th or 15th October.
As has been previously reported, the elections had failed to arouse much popular enthusiasm, and the reports which have been received from many of His Majesty's consuls, have dwelt on the difficulty experienced in obtaining accurate information with regard to parliamentary affairs in general owing to the ignorance and indifference shown by all but a section of the official and literary classes. The result of this almost universal apathy has been seen in the reluctance of the voters to exercise their rights, so that in many districts the franchise had to be extended by tacitly permitting the rules governing the qualifications of electors to be broken. It was accordingly to be expected that the candidates for election would belong largely to those classes of the community whose superior intelligence would enable them to realise the opportunities offered by membership of the assemblies, and such reports as have been received up to date from His Majesty's consuls go to show that the great majority of the delegates elected consists of officials and literati of various grades. It would of course be premature to judge by the few reports which have as yet reached this legation, but it would appear on the whole that the assemblies will represent the more influential and educated classes as opposed to the great mass of the people, even though they may not all conform to the high standard ascribed to the Shansi assembly by a professor of the university at Tai Yuan-fu, who speaks of the delegates as having been chosen "more for character than ability; plain, quiet men with a good deal of reserve strength," adding that "the showy demagogue was not in evidence."
This particular model assembly, whose president, it may be stated, made special reference in his opening speech to China's indebtedness to England in the realm of constitutional government, has already furnished an example of the attitude which the provincial parliaments may be expected to assume towards the Central Govern- ment by passing a solemn protest against the action of the Peking authorities with regard to the anti-opium campaign in Shansi. The thorough-going measures taken by the provincial government having, as reported in my separate despatches on the subject, put a complete stop to the cultivation of opium, the Shansi authorities had proceeded to forbid the importation of opium from the adjoining provinces, a measure which would have dealt a dealt a death-blow to the opium-smoking vice in their own province. The Central Board of Revenue have, however, for financial reasons, ordered the removal of this restriction, a proceeding against which the provincial assembly have lost no time in drawing up a strongly worded and unanimous protest.
Though the assemblies are to be purely deliberative bodies, there can be no doubt that their expressed opinions cannot but have great weight with the local authorities,
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