[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[35162]
No. 1.
[September 28.]
SECTION 1.
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.-(Received September 28.)
Board of Trade, September 27, 1910.
Sir,
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th September, with its enclosures, relative to the measures proposed by the Chinese Government to provide the necessary funds for the Liao River Conservancy Scheme.
With regard to the last paragraph of Mr. Wilkinson's despatch of the 29th July to Mr. Max Müller, the Board are disposed to think that the action of the Board of Finance at Peking, in taking the sum required for this purpose from the local customs revenue, is open to considerable objection.
It appears to them that if the principle involved in this step he admitted, the security of the Chinese loans, to the service of which, as Sir Edward Grey is aware, the custoins revenues are apothecated, will be seriously impaired.
The Board venture to think that it is of importance that these revenues, instead of being handed over, either wholly or in part, for any local object, should first he brought together by the Central Government with a view to ensuring that a sufficient sum is available for use in connection with the loans.
It would no doubt he undesirable, at this late stage, to raise objections to the particular scheme under consideration, but the Board would suggest, for Sir E. Grey's consideration, that Mr. Max Müller should be instructed, in signifying his approval of the proposals, to place on record the objections of His Majesty's Government to the principle of meeting expenditure of the character in question out of the local receipts of the Imperial maritime customs, and to express the hope that such a principle will not again be acted upon.
I am, &c.
G. R. ASKWITH.
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