CO129-253 - Public Offices & Others - 1891 — Page 120

mimi na súdzvajal Paul SwanNavi, stát klasė

No. 2.

23043

RECR

REC 30 NOV 91117

Acting Consul-General Momat to the Marquis of Sulisbury.-(Received November 6.)

(No. 19.) My Lord,

Shanghae, September 30, 1891. I HAD the honour on the 27th instant to receive your Lordship's telegram, in cypher, of the previous day, stating that the Chinese Minister had been informed by the Yamen of the seizure here of arms consigned to a British employé of the Customs for the use of the Secret Societies, and of other British subjects being implicated, and instructing me to report by telegraph, and fully by mail.

I had already, on the 18th instant, transmitted to your Lordship copies of two letters which I had written to Her Majesty's Minister on the subject of the seizure of the arms, and of Mason's share in the affair. In reply, he telegraphed on the 23rd that he would inform the Yamen, who had been applying to him on the subject, that be entirely approved of my having refused to take part in the proposed examination of Mason by the Taotai, and that at the moment it did not appear advisable to him to initiate a Crown prosecution against Mason, though such a step might later become necessary.

Two days later the Taotai addressed me, under instructions from the Viceroy at Nanking, and requested me to direct the Crown Advocate to institute a prosecution against Mason. As this formal request by the Chinese authorities put the matter on a different footing, I thought it right to apply again to Her Majesty's Minister for instructions. On the following day he telegraphed authorizing the institution of proceedings against Mason by the Crown Advocate, a circumstance of which I at once informed the Taotai. Mason had, in the meanwhile, as there was some reason to fear he might attempt to leave Shanghae, been arrested on a sworn charge (framed under "The Explosive Substances Act, 1883," and preferred by a Chinese official) of having in his possession 5 lbs. of dynamite under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he did not have it in his possession for a lawful object. He was, on the 28th, brought up before the Magistrate and remanded for a week.

As to the other British subjects referred to in your telegram, I have the honour lo report that the Taotai some days ago requested me to direct the arrest of six men

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(British subjects) who had recently come up from Hong Kong, and whom he asserted to be in complicity with the Ko-lao-hui. No definite charge was ever laid against them by the Chinese authorities, and I am now informed that they have determined not to prefer any. One of them, indeed, Toussaint by uame, is to be called as a witness against Mason. This man would seem to have been engaged by Mason in Hong Kong, and he in turn induced the others to come here by a promise that they would get employment in the Customs. Shortly after they arrived, four of the five applied to me for relief as distressed British subjects, and I sent them to the Sailors' Home. Two were seamen, and, as such, entitled to relief; the other two it was thought desirable should be left in Shanghae for a time. The fifth found employment as second mate in a British ship which is to sail shortly. Toussaint is the sixth.

I have the honour to append the substance of my cypher telegram of the 28th instant to your Lordship.

I have, &c.

(Signed) R. A. MOWAT.

Paraphrase of Telegram.

Shanghae, September 28, 1891. You have been correctly informed as to seizure. A charge was preferred against Mason on Saturday, under the Explosives Act of 1883, of having explosives in his possession, and a Crown prosecution has been directed by Minister. Mason has been arrested, and, on being brought up this morning before Magistrate, was remanded for a week.

The Chinese authorities have not brought a charge against any other British subject, and I doubt whether evidence exists to support one.

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