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Enclosure 2 in No. 61*.
Memorandum communicated to Wai-chiao Pu by Sir J. Jordan.
HIS Majesty's Minister has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Wai-chiao Pu's memorandum of the 16th May with reference to the election of members of the National Assembly representing Chinese resident in British colonies.
It appears from this memorandum that the Chinese Government is under the impression that the British Government's objection is merely to the method by which the election of these representatives was effected. His Majesty's Minister would assure the Wai-chiao Pu that such is not the case; His Majesty's Government has a funda- mental objection to the whole principle of representation of Chinese subject to British law in the Parliament of a foreign country, and the method of election is a detail which in no wise affects this opinion. Whether by the present method of election or by any other, it is impossible to avoid a state of affairs in which the Chinese Government exercises interference in regions which are under the British Crown. Chinese citizens in British colonies, like the subjects of other nationalities, are amenable while they stay there to British law, and cannot be allowed to import into the country of their domicile the political controversies and domestic rivalries of their country of origin.
His Majesty's Minister is communicating the Wai-chiao Pu's memorandum to His Majesty's Government, but he deems it necessary to correct without delay the misapprehension which underlies the reply of the bureau for the organisation of Parliament.
Peking, May 28, 1913.
[29604]
No. 73.
Mr. Alaton to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 28.)
(No. 251.) Sir,
Peking, June 12, 1913.
I HAVE the honour to report that the President issued an order on the 9th instant dismissing the Tutu of Kiangai.
months past,
many
The province of Kiangsi has defied the Central Government for refusing to accept officials appointed from Peking or to remit any revenue to the capital, and generally posing as the champion of provincial autonomy in its most extreme form. At the same time the Tutu of the province has figured as the most militant of the supporters of the southern party, headed by Sun Yat Sen and Huang Heing.
Until assured of funds Yuan remained passive and carried the policy of patience to the extreme limit, for no one knows better than he the disastrous effect of an unfulfilled threat on the Chinese miud. As soon as the success of the reorganisation loan rendered the northern army mobile he issued warning orders to the recalcitrant provinces, at the same time moving troops to Hankow and the Yang-tsze to back the orders if necessary. Kiangai at first attempted to retaliate, and the Tutu moved his troops to positions facing those occupied by the northern forces, but the neighbouring provinces of Anhui
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