240
2
private one, and there is some idea that the capital has been jointly subscribed by Chinese and Japanese. Timber rafts are able to descend the Hung Ch'i, which rises in the mountains in the Suifenho (Pogranitchnaya) district, Pai Ts'ao Kou has only 3 Chinese houses, and at Lung Ching Ts'un there are 2,000 Corcans, 200 Japanese, and some 60 Chinese. About 40 to 50 Corcan families are moving daily into the Ilunchun district, and the Japanese are also pushing the Coreaus into Chientao, with the purpose, it is thought, of having a ground for interference when time and opportunity serve. The trade of Chientao is at present infinitesimal; the Coreans take no imports and only produce enough for their own wauts, arguing that it is useless to do more, since any surplus will be subjected to taxation. The revenue collected at the Hunchun eustoms during last month was under 250 taels, and it is estimated that the maximum collection per mensem at this place will not exceed 1,000 taels, and that at Lung Ching Ts'un it will be even less.
It is to be observed that, as with sections of the Ussuri and Amur Rivers--sce my despatch No. 6 of the 20th March last-the lower portion of the Tiumen is entirely outside Chinese territory, being bounded on the right bank by Corea and on the left by the Primorsk. Chü Tzu Chieh (Yen Chi Kang), Lung Ching Tsun (Liu Tao Kou), Tou Tao Kon, Liang Shui Ch'üan Tzu, and Hunchun are all within 100 of the Corean frontier as the crow flies, while the two last are within the same distance of the Russian border. Liang Shui Ch'uan Tzu derives importance from its situation at the limit of the Chinese free zone on the Russo-Chinese frontier, and from its position at the junction of the roads leading to Ninguia and Kirin. My despatches Nos. 12 and 15 of the 14th May and the 12th instant respectively made reference to the possibility of Japanese claims to preferential frontier treatment under article 11 of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of the 22nd December, 1905.
The Chientao and Hunchun districts, a rough sketch map of part of which and of the adjacent country is enclosed, are considered to afford a good striking base against Vladivostock, Novo Kievsk, and Possiet. At Novo Kievsk there are some 10,000 Kussian troops, and about 1,000 each, it is said, at Possiet and Russian Hunchun. The Japanese are stated to have had as large a force as 15,000 men at Cheong-jin, but many of these are now thought to have been moved to Corean places along the Tiumen. The Chinese bave withdrawn a considerable number of troops from the Chientao district, and there seems to be some reason to think that the Chinese officials on the spot realise already that the territory is in fact, if not in theory, lost to them.
It is difficult to think, notwithstanding the recent Russo-Japanese agreement, that it would be agreeable to Russia to have Chientao or Hunchun in the possession of the Japanese, and it would seem not improbable that for the time being the policy of Japan in those parts, while directed towards the consolidation of her position on both sides of the Tiumen, will not aim at the direct acquisition of either of the districts in question.
I should be glad if I might be furnished with copies of recent agreements concerning Chientao, of which there are none at this consulate or, I think, at Mukden.
I have, &c.
H. E. SLY.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[34651]
No. 1.
[September 26.]
SECTION 1.
Mr. Muæ Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received September 26.) (No. 302.) Sir,
Peking, September 8, 1910. WITH reference to my despatch No. 194 of the 10th June, I have the honour to transmit herewith a summary drawn up by Mr. Ramsay, Third Secretary to His Majesty's Legation, of the intelligence reports received from His Majesty's consular officers in China for the second quarter of the current year.
I have, &c.
Enclosure in No. 1.
W. G. MAX MÜLLER.
Summary of Intelligence Reports received from Consular Officers in China.
1. Crops and Unrest.
REPORTS from His Majesty's consular officers for the last quarter showed that the spring crops had been a failure in many parts of China, with the result that there had been a rise in price of foodstuffs and exchange, involving hardships on the poorer classes, and consequent unrest in many places. In Hunan the price of rice had been artifically raised by the speculating gentry, and riots broke out at Changsha on the 14th April; considerable damage was done to foreign property, and foreigners were obliged to leave the province. Anxiety was felt lest the movement should spread down the Yang-tsze, but these fears were not realised, largely owing to the energetic action of the Viceroy at Wuchang. Despite his firm attitude, British residents at Hankow held a meeting, and enrolled some seventy volunteers, which the commander- in-chief was moved to place under naval direction. The riots in Hunan and the situation on the Yang-tsze were so fully dealt with in despatches Nos. 166 of the 21st May and No. 108, Confidential, of the 14th April, that it would be superfluous to dwell on the subject in this memorandum, beyond mentioning the precautions that were taken to prevent an outbreak which was expected by the Chinese authorities on the opening of the Nanking exhibition early in June. The new Chinese troops were disarmed, and foreign and Chinese war-ships gathered at the port. Nothing occurred, but the comparative failure of the exhibition is, in the opinion of His Majesty's consul at Nanking, largely attributable to the general feeling of insecurity on the Yang-tsze. Though outward signs of unrest had disappeared by the end of the quarter, His Majesty's consul reported that the authorities were still apprehensive of revolutionaries, and the city was patrolled day and night by small bodies of mounted troops. Alarmist rumours for a time prevented people going to the summer hill station of Kuling near Kiukiang, until Mr. Berkin, the manager of that estate, wrote to the Shanghai press contradicting the rumours. Actual outbreaks in other parts of the Empire have been numerous, but of an isolated nature. The taking of the census created considerable excitement in villages round Soochow, and was used by agitators in attempts to arouse anti-foreign feeling. The military rioting at Soochow and incidental assault on four British subjects, the anti-foreign feeling and anti-Japanese riots at Hangchow, and the attacks on flour mills at Tsingkiangpu were all reported in separate despatches (No. 109 of the 15th April, No. 151 of the 12th May, and No. 154 of the 16th May respectively),
of
In Shantung the wheat crop was spoilt by drought in spring and rain at harvest time, and His Majesty's consul at Chefoo reports that owing to the rise in price every kind of grain and the fact that a tael now equals 1,850 cash as against 1,750 last year, large numbers of the inland population, whose lot is harder now that the Manchurian farmers have ceased to export wheat to Shantung in order to realise higher profits from bean cultivation, have emigrated to other provinces and to Dalny,
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