2
Sir Pelham Warren addressed to me the despatch, copy of which I have the honour to enclose, from which you will observe that the Chinese authorities intend to maintain a staff and equipment sufficient to preserve the river in its improved condition. The exact details of the scheme will not be settled until the High Commissioner, Jui Cheng, has gone into the matter with the Swedish expert whom he has engaged. The money will be provided by the taotai's yamên in the same manner as the sums required for the last dredging contract.
I have, &c.
(No. 25.) Sir,
Enclosure in No. 1.
W. G. MAX MÜLLER.
Consul-General Warren to Mr. Max Müller.
Shanghae, March 23, 1910. WITH reference to your telegram No. 7 of the 18th instant and my reply No. 6 of the 19th instant on the subject of Whangpon Conservancy funds, I have the honour to report that at an interview yesterday the taotai informed me as follows --
The Conservancy Board is fully alive to the necessity for taking steps to secure the permanence of the works already carried out when the training and dredging operations now in progress in the lower river shall have been completed and all available funds expended about the end of this year.
It is intended to maintain a staff and equipment sufficient to maintain the river in its improved condition, but the details of this staff and equipment and its estimated expenditure will not be decided upon until his Excellency Jui Cheng, who is still High Commissioner for Conservancy, has gone into the matter with the Swedish expert engaged by him and made a further report to the Throne. This report has been delayed owing to his Excellency's illness.
The funds necessary for permanent maintenance will be found by the taotai's yamên, in a manner similar to that in which the additional sum of 300,000 taels for the last dredging contract was provided by him.
As regards the provision of funds for the undertaking of further conservancy work in the upper river and at Pheasant Point, i... the remaining portions of M. de Rijke's scheme, this was too serious a matter for the local Chinese authorities, and if these works were ever to be undertaken it must be as the result of negotiations between the diplomatic body and the Central Government.
I shall not fail to remind the taotai from time to time of the necessity for elaborating a scheme for the maintenance of the completed works as soon as possible.
I have, &c.
PELHAM L. WARREN.
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[14135]
(No. 10L.) Sir,
No. 1.
30
[April 5.] CO
14294
SECTION 3.
Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 25.)
LOR
R 12 MAY 10,
Peking, April 7, 1910. YOU are aware, from my despatch No. 84 of the 18th ultimo and other correspondence, that there are now three incidents in connection with Macao which have become the subject of an exchange of notes between the Chinese Government and the Portuguese chargé d'affaires, viz., the Dom João Island incident, the establishment of a Chinese fishery bureau at Wau-chai on Lappa, and the placing by the Portuguese of a buoy in the inner harbour in the neighbourhood of Green Island.
In regard to the first point, the alleged violation of the status quo in Dom João, I had the honour to inform you that my Portuguese colleague had, in obedience to instructions from his Government, communicated to you by the Portuguese Legation in London on the 24th February, addressed a further note to the Chinese Government on the subject. To this note M. Brederode has received a reply, translation of which I have the honour to enclose.* It is a mere denial of the arguments put forward by the Portuguese Government, ending with a curt refusal to restore the boats.
In regard to the establishment of the Chinese fishery bureau at Wan-chai, M. de Brederode bas received instructions from his Government, and has addressed to the Chinese Government the enclosed note,† protesting against this act of the Canton authorities as being a clear violation of the status quo of 1887.
The third and latest incident, namely, the placing of a buoy by the Portuguese authorities west-south-west of Green Island, at a distance of about 300 metres from that island, forms the subject of the third enclosure in this despatch. It is the reply of Prince Ching to the note of the Portuguese chargé d'affaires of the 18th ultimo, and contains a flat denial of the Portuguese rights of jurisdiction over the water of the inner harbour. As far as I can judge from the explanations given me by my Portuguese colleague, the buoy in question is placed in waters where the Portuguese have hitherto exercised jurisdiction, and within the provisional boundary line accepted in a note addressed by his Excellency Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Canton, to Mr. Cinatti, Portuguese consul at Canton, on the 22nd July, 1890.
As I reported in my despatch No. 84 of the 18th ultimo, I had already given his Excellency Liang Tun-yen to understand how far-fetched and unreasonable I considered the Chinese protest in regard to the placing of this buoy, and I have therefore refrained from making any further representations in regard to this special incident as I do not consider that they would serve any useful purpose, especially in view of the reference to the Macao question in your message as to the advisability of postponing the visit of Prince Tsai Tao. I, however, took the opportunity of my interview with their Excellencies Na-t'ung and Liang Tun-yen, on the 28th ultimo, to urge the speedy adoption of proper measures for a final settlement of this long pending dispute so as to avoid the constant recurrence of these irritating incidents-and what measures more suitable for the settlement of a boundary question than arbitration? I told their Excellencies that Sir John Jordan had been given to understand that the Chinese Government had been waiting for the arrival of Liu Shih-hsün, the Chinese Minister in Paris, who had already dealt with the question in Lisbon, but that I had had to report to my Government that Liu Shih-bsun had, as a matter of fact, returned to China several weeks ago, and gone down to his home on four months' leave without anything being done.
Na-t'ung told me that Liu Shih-hsün's leave had been reduced from six to four months, and that on its expiration he would be summoned to Peking for an audience and then directed to proceed to Lisbon to open fresh negotiatious in regard to the Macao boundary question.
I suggested to Na-t'ung that he should authorise the Chinese Minister in London
* Prince Ch'ing to Portuguese chargé d'affaires, April 4, 1910.
† Portuguese chargé d'affaires to Prince Ching, April 4, 1910.
‡ Prince Ching to Portuguese chargé d'affaires, March 28, 1910.
[2729 b--3]