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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
(
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
[April 22.]
SECTION 2.
Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne.--(Received April 22.)
Feking, March 9, 1905.
(No. 79.) My Lord,
I HAVE the honour to inclose copy of the note which I have addressed to the Cinese Government in accordance with the instructions conveyed to me in your Lordship's despatch No. 270 of the 7th October, 1904, informing them that His Majesty's Government will continue to regard as the provisional boundary the line laid down by Mr. (now Sir George) Scort in 1900, and intimating that Chinese officials and troops cannot be allowed to transgress it.
In my note I have laid stress on the fact that the Chinese Government had taken no notice of the information I had furnished to them regarding the false map produced by the Chinese Commissioners. In my earlier note of the 12th May, 1901, I had offered to show a copy of it to Prince Ching, together with the photo-lithographic reproduction of the genuine one signed by Lord Rosebery and the Chinese Minister in 1894. The Foreign Board borrowed both from this Legation in June 1904 for examination, and returned them after three days without remark. The manner in which Prince Ch'ing's note of the 17th June, 1904, ignored this point seems to show that the Chinese Government had no explanation to offer of the attempt at fraud practised by their Commissioner.
As your Lordship's instructions left me free to take a suitable opportunity of making this communication to the Chinese Government, I deferred doing so until the arrangements with respect to the dispatch of British and Chinese officials to make a conjoint examination of the undelimited northern portion of the frontier were com- pleted. As Mr. Litton and the Acting Taotai Shih left Têngyüeh some days ago for that purpose, it seemed to me that there was no danger of the Chinese Government confusing the two questions in their own minds, and I therefore proceeded to carry out your Lordship's instructions.
I presume that the Lieutenant-Governor of Burmah will be able to exercise some sort of supervision over the provisional frontier constituted by Sir George Scott's line, and to report any instance of its transgression by Chinese troops or officials.
I bave, &c. (Signed)
ERNEST SATOW.
Your Highness,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to the Wai-mu Pu,
Peking, March 7, 1905. I HAVE the honour to inform your Highness that I duly transmitted to His Majesty's Government your replyof the 17th June, 1904, in which you asked that officers might be appointed to effect a joint demarcation of the southern portion of the frontier between Burmah and China, stretching from the confluence of the river Nam Hpa (alias Nam Hsang) on the north to the cairn erected at the point where the demarcated section of the southern boundary commences.
In my note of the 12th May I recounted the incidents that occurred during the proceedings of the Frontier Commission in the winter of 1899-1900, when the Chinese Commissioners produced a map which they stated had been furnished to them by the Tsung-li Yamen. Having a facsimile copy in my possession, I offered to show it to Your Highness, in comparison with that signed in London by Lord Rosebery and his Excellency Sich. I further pointed out that, as the Chinese Commissioners had persisted in being guided by a map which was not that signed by his Excellency Sieh, no agreement was possible.
After long discussions and delays, the British Commissioner intimated that, if the Chinese Commissioners refused to be guided by the Convention, he must complete the
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