CO129-337 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1906 — Page 123

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

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

2-01

4237

CONFIDENTIAL.

[955]

20

No. 1.

Received January 8, 1906.

FEB 06

SECTION 8.

120

4

Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne.--(Received January 8, 1906.)

(No. 384. Confidential.)

Peking, November 13, 1905.

My Lord,

WITH reference to the concluding paragraph of my despatch No. 355 of the 10th October, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I sent Mr. C. W. Campbell, the Acting Chinese Secretary of this Legation, who has the advantage of a long personal acquaintance with the Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai, to Tien-tsin to see his Excellency, lay before him the various railway and other matters of which I had reason to complain, and especially to invite his serious attention to the popular movement in many provinces against foreign concession and enterprises. I inclose a copy of so much of Mr. Campbell's notes of this interview as refer more particularly to railway agreements.

The Viceroy took the view of the Wai-wu Pu correspondence shown to him which I should naturally have expected, and promised to make representations in the proper quarters during his visit to Peking. His Excellency arrived here on the 10th instant, and will probably remain for some weeks to take part in the negotiations with Baron Komura.

I should add that the question of Manchuria fully occupies the thoughts of the Chinese Government for the time being (Prince Ching, Yuan Shih-k'ai, and Ch'ü Hung-chi are the special Commissioners appointed to treat with Baron Komura), and I fear it may be difficult to secure much attention to Railway and Mining Concessions during the present month.

I have, &c.

(Signed) ERNEST SATOW.

Inclosure in No. 1.

Interview of Mr. C. W. Campbell with the Viceroy of Chih-li at Tien-tsin on November 7, 1905.

Railway Concessions.

I OUTLINED the history of the Canton-Kowloon and Soochow-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway Concessions, sketched the main features of the correspondence with the Wai-wu Pu and produced copies of the Wai-wu Pu's note of the 9th October about the latter concession, and Sir E. Satow's reply of the 10th October for his Excellency's inspection. The net result was that the Chinese Government in deference to local clamour openly supported a one-sided cancellation of written agreements, and in explanation of this curious attitude merely said that the people themselves wished to construct the railways. Sir E. Satow had seen Prince Ching, Nat'ung, and Ch'ü Hung-Chi on these and other matters, and he was asked to be patient. He was told that his objections were thoroughly appreciated and that the Wai-wu Pu were doing their best, but that they must humour the agitation in the provinces lest they should be swept off their legs. Sir Ernest had noticed that the American boycott, which in South China had been treated after the method of the Wai-wu Pu, was promptly suppressed by his Excellency as soon as it reached Chih-li, and caused no difficulty whatever in North China; and feeling confident that his Excellency's views on the anti-concession agitation were equally sound, he had sent me to make a private communication on the subject, and invoke his Excellency's assistance to bring the Central Government to a proper sense of what they were doing.

* Stating that he would sound Yuan Shih-kai.

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