1
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
со
139
[B]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[214]
No. 1.
3502
[Jalary 21FEB 10
SECTION 8.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received January 3, 1910.)
(No. 461. Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, December 10, 1909.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith in translation copy of a circular despatch which the Wai-wu Pu has addressed to the foreign representatives, protesting against a notification alleged to have been issued by the Russian Foreign Office on the subject of the Russian railway settlements in Manchuria. The notification referred to is apparently the memorandum which the Russian Govern- ment addressed to His Majesty's Government, and of which a copy has not so far reached me.*
The Russian Minister informs me that the Chinese Government asked him some time ago for a copy of this document, and that he saw no objection to complying with their request, as its contents were certain to reach them from other sources. But he did not anticipate that it would be utilised to form the basis of a protest to the Powers, and M. Korostovetz regards the criticism and action of the Wai-wu Pu as an indication that they wish to repudiate the agreement of the 10th May last, or, at all events, that they have no intention of acting in the spirit of that undertaking. He is inclined to doubt, therefore, whether any useful purpose will he served by entering into the nego- tiations contemplated in the 17th article of the May agreement, but says that he will offer no obstacle to these negotiations which, as at present arranged, are to commence at Harbin within the next few days.
The accompanying despatch from Mr. Willis, the acting consul-general at Mukden, throws some light on the Russian attitude and points to the possibility of Russia denouncing the May agreement and coming to an arrangement with Japan on the basis of her original interpretation of clause 6 of the agreement of 1896.
The proposal to which Mr. Willis alludes for converting some 500 acres of the Russian railway area into an international settlement was never put forward officially here, and would not, I think, form a satisfactory solution of the question, as the non-Russian element of the population is not sufficiently numerous or important to make such a settlement a success.
If, as Mr. Willis states, British subjects are willing to accept the Russian municipal regulations, provided they can obtain a guarantee that they will be fairly taxed and not subjected to annoyances at the hands of the Russian police, it might he better to endeavour to obtain safeguards on these points than to risk the conclusion of an understanding between Russia and Japan on the lines described. above.
The question is no longer an academic one for us, and it is probable that the march of events will soon force us to find some practical solution of it.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Wai-uu Pu to Sir J. Jordan.
December 4, 1909.
(Translation.) Sir,
WITH reference to the establishment by Russia of municipalities in the railway territory in Manchuria, the Board concluded an agreement with the object of preserving the sovereign rights of China and at the same time safeguarding the
* This is evidently the aide-memoire which we received on the 11th October, and went to Peking in print on the 30th October. It should have reached Sir J. Jordan a day or two after this despatch was written.-B. A.
B
[2605 C- -8]