[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
297
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[44964]
No. 1.
5654-
[December 10,224 FEB 10
SECTION 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.(Received December 10.)
(No. 192.) (Telegraphic.) P. MACAO.
Peking, December 10, 1909.
The Wai-wu Pu declare that they have no official information as to the landing of Chinese troops on Dom João, which forms the subject of enquiry in your telegram No. 195 of yesterday's date. From the Portuguese I learn that the Chinese landed some 200 or 400 men on the morning of the 7th instant, the declared object being the arrest of escaped criminals. The troops left the same day at noon.
I have not yet received a report on the subject from Ilis Majesty's consul-general at Canton in reply to a telegraphic enquiry sent to him yesterday.
My Portuguese colleague made an official request for arbitration on the 8th instant. In accordance with your instructions, I saw the Ministers of the Wai-wu Pa to-day, and strongly supported the Portuguese proposal. They stated, however, that the question was one which concerned Portugal and China alone; it involved complicated local interests, and arbitration was, in their opinion, an ineffectual means of dealing with the same satisfactorily. On these grounds, therefore, they had now definitely decided to reply to the Portuguese request in the negative.
This decision will, I understand, shortly be communicated to the Portuguese chargé d'affaires.
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