CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904 — Page 309

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL,

is the Property of His Brilonnic Majesty's Government.]

C.O

22338ed

No. 1.

RECP REG 23

2.

Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne.—(Received June 6.)

(No. 135.)

Peking, April 21, 1904. My Lord,

WITH reference to my telegram No. 83 of the 14th ultimo, in which I repeated to your Lordship a telegram from His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton informing me that nothing had so far been done to remove the obstructions on the Canton River, I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship herewith a copy of a despatch which I have received from His Majesty's Consul-General on the subject.

Mr. Campbell in an interview with the Viceroy strongly urged that the work should be taken in hand at once, in accordance with the obligations imposed by Article V of the new commercial Treaty, and on the 6th instant the Viceroy's Foreign Secretary called upon him and informed him that orders were being issued for the removal of the obstructions to navigation in accordance with the scheme framed by At the time of writing, however, Mr. Morse, the Commissioner of Customs. Mr. Campbell had not yet received any written communication to this effect.

I have approved the language used by Mr. Campbell in his interview with the Viceroy.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

ERNEST SATOW.

:

(No. 23.) Sir,

Inclosure in No. 1.

Acting Consul-General Campbell to Sir E, Satow.

Canton, April 6, 1904. I WAS informed by Mr. Morse, Conumissioner of Customs, shortly after my arrival hore, that he had submitted to the Viceroy a detailed scheme for the removal of the barriers in the Canton River, in accordance with the first sentence of Article V of the Mackay Treaty. I gathered then from Mr. Morso and others that there was a division of opinion amongst the foreigners interested in the navigation of the river as to the extent of removal which was necessary or expedient, and it soon became evident to me that this division of opinion was influencing, or was being used by, the Viceroy in the direction of delay.

I have been at some pains to inquire, and though there is a certain amount of foreign opinion that a total removal of the barriers might alter the river channel injuriously, it seems to me to be too vague and inexpert to be taken into serious consideration. So far as "artificial obstructions to navigation" are concerned, no doubt it might be sufficient to remove portions only of the barriers, but in the absence of opinion to that effect from competent hydraulic engineers, I have not thought it advisable to listen to any proposal for a partial removal.

In January I think that the Viceroy was rapidly making up his mind to set Mr. Morse's scheme into operation, but the outbreak of war again inclined him to delay, and more than once he sounded me confidentially on the possibility of postponing action on the barriers until a more convenient season.

As his Excellency did not reply to an official note which I addressed to him after the receipt of your telegram No. 5 of the 12th nitimo, I brought the subject up at an interview on the 1st instant. He urged that the present was not an appropriate time for removing barriers which the ignorant population of Kwangtung looked upon as important defensive works; that he had enough on his hands in Kwangsi without raising popular excitement in the Canton delta, and that the barriers were not such a serious obstruction to foreign shipping that they could not wait a little longer.

I replied that they had already waited eighteen months since the Mackay Treaty was sigued; that the time limit for their removal was not far off; that in a recent fog British ships had been damaged by collision with these barriers, and that popular excitement

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