[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
[B]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[May 22.]
SECTION 2.
490
[19463]
(No. 191.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.~~(Received May 22.)
Peking, May 1, 1911. THE difficulties which the Chinese Government experiences in carrying on the administration of Manchuria are forcibly illustrated by the frequent changes which take place in the appointments to the post of Governor-General at Mukden.
The post of Tartar-General there was abolished some four years ago, and the post of Governor-General, with the attributes of Imperial Commissioner in supreme control of all the affairs of the three castern provinces, was created to take its place. The first holder of the new appointment was his Excellency Hsu Shih-ch'ang, who remained in Manchuria barely two years and failed to show the capacity and strength of character necessary to deal with a highly complicated situation. On Isü return to Peking as president of the Board of Communications, the Viceroy of Yunnan, his Excellency Hsi Liang, was transferred to the Mukden Viceroyalty, and great hopes were entertained that at last a man had been found who would succeed in defending Manchuria against Japanese and Russian encroachment. After two years experience Isi Liang, in turn, has found the task an impossible one, and the burden of Manchuriau administration has now devolved upon Chao Erb-hsün, the Viceroy of Szechuan, who was Tartar-General at Mukden from 1995 to 1907, and has the reputation of being the most upright and efficient official in the Empire.
Chao Erb-hsün, who is now in Peking, is a wizen-faced little man of 68, who prides himself on being a life-long tectotaller and non-smoker, and justly claims considerable credit for having totally suppressed during his three years tenure of office the cultivation of opium in Szechuan. The forward policy which China recently assumed in Thibet and the Western frontier generally was largely due to Chao Erh-hsün, who found a most active ally in his brother Chao Erh-fêng, the Warden of the Szechuan Marches. The appointment of the latter as Acting Viceroy of Szechuan is a guarantee that this policy will be continued, and in connection with our difficulties on the Burmah frontier, it is especially worthy of note that the new Warden of the Marches, Wang Jèn-wen, is appointed for Yunnan as well as Szechuan, This significant addition to the Warden's jurisdiction probably portends an extension of Chinese activity in the direction of the comparatively unknown region which forms the subject of frontier negotiations between China and Great Britain.
I have, &e.
J. N. JORDAN.
[2023 y-2]