The Macao Question.
A REPLY TO THE PORTUGUESE VERSION.
(Cantea Information Bureau.)
Canton: September 26-A Hongkong paper has published what, we take it, is to be read as the official Portuguese version of the recent incident at Macao. The statement opens with the admis- sion that "various incidents have occurred recently relating to the question of Portuguese and Chinese jurisdiction all of which have been determined with more or less difficulty by the authorities at Canton and Macao". We concur. But what follow in the Portuguese version is an obvious falsification of bistory. "These incidents or conflicts", it is said, "far from being due to a desire to enlarge Portuguese authority-a desire which does not exist-are rather due to a want of comprehension of the right, duties and obligatione of nations in their relations to each other, on the part of enbaltern or junior Chinese officials, who maintain a doubtful discipline mongst their subordinates,”
A CONCLUSIVE ANSWER.
The conclusive answer to this attempt to find the cause for these "incidente or conflicts" in Chinese truculency rather than in
the Portuguese desire to grab more Chinese territory, is to point out that whereas in 1848, the area of Macau was actually less than 3 square milee, it is to-day considerably more than 11 square miles and, if the Portuguese claim were allowed, it would exceed 50 sq. m,!
As the Purluguese statement has plunged into history, and hal history at that, it is necessary to rehearse the relevant historical facts involved in the case. The settlement of Macao origically. comprised the tip of the tongue of land jutting out at the southeru extremity of the West River delta, known as the District of Heung- Shau. The Portuguese were at first no more than squatters avi, according to a well-known book of referenc, they "first obtained a footing on a vacant lot near the shore under the pretext of drying wet cargo, and in 1557 ware permitted by the Chinese Government, then under the Ming Dynasty, to erect factories on the payment of Tle. 20,000". Later, the Portuguese made a new arrangement with the Manchu Government, which required them to pay zu aubual land tax of Tls. 500 and prohibited their movements beyond two barrier gater. These gates "were opened 5 times a month, when the Portuguese were supplied with rice and other necessaries".
"A SCRAP OF PAPER"
The land tax of Tls. 500 was paid until 1848, when the Por- tuguese-taking advantage of the weakened state of China brought about by the first Opium War-violated the agreement, refused to pay the land tax and expelled the Chinese authorities. It was about this time that the "desire to enlarge Portuguese authority" found its first notable expression. The northern boundary of Macao, which then ran across the centre of the tongue of land, was pusheri back to include the entire peninsula, right up to the barrier on the sandy isthmus connecting the settlement with the rest of the delta. This illegal state of things, created by the Portuguese, continued down to 1887, when the Protocol of Lisbon and the Treaty of Pik- ing legalised the Portuguese occupation of Macao io return for the Portuguese undertaking to aid in suppressing the maggling trade in opium-which, by the way, is still vigorous and tourishing in the settlement.
The Portuguese statement appears to invoke article 2 of the Treaty of Peking. The article stipulates that "Commissioners appointed by both Governments shell proceed to the delimitation of the boundaries (of Macao), which shall be determined by a special Convention; but so long as the delimitation of the boundaries is not concluded, everything in respect of them shall continue as at present without sildition, diminution, or alteration by either of the parties," LAPPA'S SPRING WATERS.
At the date of this Treaty of Peking of 1887, the water- boundary between Macan and the Chinese territory koowo ne Lapps Teland, lying opposite to it, was not an acute issue-if it were an issue at all because (a) the Portuguese authorities at the time had a more or less correct comprehension of the right, duties and obligations of nations in their relations to each other" in the matter
of
an inlet-boundary, such as that existing betwean Macao aud Lappe Island, i.e. the boundary line lies along the centre of the main channel; (b) it was only in 1909 that the Portuguese began dredging work with the view of making the Port of Macan available for the largest river-boats and ultimately oversea shipping; and (0) in 1887, the Portuguese had not yet contemplated the seizure of Lappa Island for the twofold purpose of exclosing the port entirely by Portuguese territory and securing for Macso the best notable water in that section of the delta region. There is little doubt that the Lusitanians are thirating for Lappa's spring-waters. But they are also wanted by the rightful and inmemorial owners of the soil. (Continued on Page 8.)
:)
The Macao Question. ]
(Continued from Page 1.) THE STATUS QUO OF 1887.
In these circumstances, the Por- tuguese statement wholly begs the question when it contends that, in: view of the maintenance of the STATUS QUO of 1887 as stipulated by article 2 of the Treaty of Peking, "it follows that if the port of Macao WAS soldly under Portuguese jurisdiction in 1887, China cannot exercise any Authority in the waters of the port". The entire point at issue is what are! "the waters of the port of Macao., The historical evidence is completely against the present Portuguese con- j tention that those waters included, in 1887, the Chinese side of the inlet separating Macao from Lappa Island, And even if the evidence-which is not the case were less conclusive as to what were the "waters of the port"
of Macao in 1887, the briefest con- a'deration of the question, under the guidance of settled law, would show the STATUS ro of 1887 to be precisely what is affirmed by the historical Facts of the case. We cast this treatment of the issue into the form of a series of numbered state- r ente:-
I. It is to be noted that the inlet
or waters between Macao and the Chinese island of Lappa were unce exclusively Chinese.
2. Prior to 1848, the portuguese occupied Macao as yearly tenants of the Chinese Government.
3. The refusal of the Portuguese
to pay the annual land-rent of Tis. 500 rendered their occupation of Macan, from 1818 to 1887, tortious and illegal.
4. The Treaty of Peking legalized the Portuguese occupation of Macao
in terms tantamount to a cession of
the territory of the settlement FROM THE DATE OF THE TREATY.
A8
5. While there was no genera!
rule of International Law which
could automatically fix the land what
It
انا ہے
may he justly described
frontier of Macao, there was, at the as a provision which sums up, in
date of the Treaty of Peking (and its
is still rule of law), such
ДО
single brief clause of agreement, years of Portuguese)
principle of the Law of Nations which truculency and Chinese philosophic
determined the frontier line two states bordering ou
of submissiven eas, the Macao barbor
au iulet matter has stationed a launch near Ngan Hang in order to compl
i.e, the middle of the main channel.
6. As Macau was LEGALLY ceded Chinese fishing-boats to go to the
to the Portuguese by the Treaty of Macan side of the river or to take 1887, it necessarily follows that the out licences issued by him. There) boundary line between it and the fare, however, limits even Chinese territory of Lappa Island yielding tolerance of the Chinese with then lay along the middle of the inlet their inherited belief in compromise to the separating the two.
of common sense. Hence, the recent as an expression of the saving grace incident.
waters on
"MONTE CARLO OF THE ORIENT."
7. Hence, the STATUS QUO of 1887 was that the "waters of the port" of
•Maans Borded in to
of the inlet, the the Lappa side being entirely under Chinese jurisdiction. On this view, the case against the Portuguese contention is complete centre of pernicius human activities which no government, definable as
both in law and in fact.
communique compels us
The language of the Portuguese necessary reference to Macao as a to make a
8. The recent incident at Macao is civilised, ought to tolerate far lena!
admittedly the direct outcome of the legalise. Portuguese attempt to extend the the centre of the slave trade in "waters of the port" right up to the the Far East.
Som years ago it war Lappa side of the inlet, it is clear that large opium dea
To-day it is one And gambling
the Portuguese are and must be in"bell" and something worse which the wrong and wholly responsible for we must refrain from specifying. the origiu and couquences of the Macao", we read in a popular guide- incident.
bok in a jerage devoted to the Amenities of the place, "is popularly known as the Monte Carlo of the
ANOTHER "SCRAP
OF PAPER."
It is unnecessary to go afresh into Orient-there being several large
the particular facts of the incident, gambling establishments, conducted, except to state that-besides being under
WAY
Government control,
the
due generally to the persistent viola-licences bringing in a large reveane tion of the Treaty of 1887 on the to the Colonial Treasury. Besides part of the Portuguese-it
licensed gambling houses, there is a specifically provoked hy another
inttery conducted by the Government characteristic Portuguese violation
The lots are drawn once a month, the of a written agreement made between highest prize being as large as $150,- the Canton and Macan authorities. last year as a MUDU VIVENDI pend-acao derives as apausi surplus 000". From these illegitimate mono- polies and trafile in human frailties,
ing the final settlement of the matter.revenue
It is one of the terms of the agree Practically
doliare.
of 6-7 million ment that the Portuguese shall not large
the whole interfere with Chinese fishing-boats the
of thie aum ia remitted which may be beached for cleaning or this process of colo al milking is
boare
to government, although repairs near Ngan Hang, & purely which appen to divert the money to masked by a method of appropriation exclu-the assisture of the Portuguese
Chinese village on the
Aively
Chinese territory
Lapy Island, la
of colony of Tin. off the N. W. const violation of of Australia.
705