[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
{
CONFIDENTIAL.
LO
8193
[February AR
SECTION 1.
442
[4274]
No. 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to Admiralty.
Foreign Office, February 14, 1911, WITH reference to your letter of the 3rd instant, I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to send you herewith a copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Peking, reporting that a considerable modification has now taken place in the situation with regard to the Whangpoo Conservancy Board.
M. Heidenstam, the Swedish engineer put forward by the Chinese Government, has now been appointed for one year's trial as chief engineer to the conservancy works, with the consent of the diplomatic body, and, in return, an explicit assurance has been obtained from the Chinese Government that the terms of the convention of 1905 will be duly adhered to. The efforts of the diplomatic body are accordingly now to be directed towards securing, so far as may be possible, the agreement of the Chinese Government to a scheme which has been approved by the consular body at Shanghai for the maintenance of the river and the completion of the engineering work.
In these circumstances, there will no longer be any need to take the steps proposed in the letter from this department of the 16th December last, and concurred in by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in your letter above referred to. Sir E. Grey would therefore propose, with the concurrence of their Lordships, merely to approve the action of Sir J. Jordan as reported in the enclosed despatch.
I am, &c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
* Sir J. Jordan, No. 24, January 14, 1911.
(1909-)