CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 558

(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

No. 1.

551

[May 23.]

SECTION 1.

Sir,

Foreign Office to China League.

Foreign Office, May 23, 1905. I AM directed by the Marquess of Lansdowne to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, relative to a telegram received by the China League from Shanghae, which, as you state, is a copy of one addressed to this Department on the 3rd instant, in which it is alleged that China ignores the Mackay Treaty, obstructs its operation, and actively opposes its stipulations respecting currency, mining, taxation, and navigation.

You add that the China League support the petition of the Shanghae merchants, signatories of that telegram, for the active intervention of His Majesty's Government with a view to securing to them the due enjoyment of their Treaty rights.

I am to inform you, in reply, that on the receipt of your letter a telegram was addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking requesting him to obtain from the signatories a detailed statement of the matters which form the subject of their complaint; they will receive the careful attention of His Majesty's Government.

am, &c. (Signed)

E. GORST.

[1977 -1]

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