CO129-338 - Public Offices & Others - 1906 — Page 311

IRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

9947

384.)

CO.

44602

[November 3.]

RECE Red 5 DFC UF

SECTION 3.

306

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received November 3.)

Peking, September 20, 1906.

WITH reference to Mr. Carnegie's despatch No. 367 of the 5th instant, I have the honour to inclose copy of a reply which I sent to Prince Ching's note of the 27th ultimo on the proposal of the Chinese authorities to establish a municipality or settlement on the northern limits of the foreign Settlement at Shanghae. In this reply we informed his Highness that there can be no desire on the part of His Majesty's Government to obstruct Chinese measures of local reorganization, or to maintain that the power of extending the Shanghae foreign Settlement should be unlimited, but I have insisted that the Chapei scheme from its nature is intended to bar any reasonable extension of the foreign Settlement, and to impose Chinese municipal control on foreigners residing in the Treaty port of Shanghae regardless of their wishes. For these reasons I have concluded that it is conceived out of hostility to foreign interests,

I have requested his Highness once more to instruct the Nanking Viceroy and the Shanghae Taotai to refrain from furthering it.

I also inclose copy of a Memorandum on this subject, which was given to me when passing through Shanghae by the Chairman of the Municipal Council.

I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ching.

Your Highness,

Peking, September 20, 1906.

IN your Highness' note of the 27th August to Mr. Carnegie it is stated that the object of the Shanghae Taotai to found a Chinese Settlement at Chapei, outside the foreign Settlement of Shanghae, is in imitation of the excellent system of police, public sanitation, and roads which is in operation in the foreign Settlement; that the foreign residents concerned will undoubtedly profit thereby, and that no injury will result to the foreign Settlement. Your Highness was unable to understand Mr. Carnegie's reference to the fact that no system of municipal government exists in Shanghae city or other Chinese towns, and his request that the proposed experiments should not be tried at the locality in question, and you went on to say, with regard to Mr. Carnegie's observation, that foreigners at Shanghae had always arranged their own police, sanitation, &c., and would continue to do so; that this implied obstruction of Chinese measures of local reorganization;

and also that the power of extending the foreign Settlement should be limited.

If your Highness will be so good as to re-examine Mr. Carnegie's note, I think you will find that the meaning of his reference to the want of municipal systems in Chinese cities is quite clear. The excellence of the foreign organizations at Shanghae being fully appreciated by the Wai-wu Pu, the obvious course for the Chinese Government should be to institute similar organizations in Peking and other large cities where they do not now exist, and where Chinese property alone is concerned, and not to select the immediate neighbourhood of the Shanghae foreign Settlement, which is already partly occupied by foreigners, for the initiation of reforms in Chinese municipal administration. There can be no desire whatever on the part of His Majesty's Government to obstruct Chinese measures of local reorganization, or to maintain that the power of extending the Shanghae foreign Settlement should be unlimited, but when it is distinctly shown, in this case, that the chief objects of the Chinese authorities are to prevent the reasonable extension of the Settlement and to impose a Chinese municipal administration on foreigners residing in the Treaty port of Shanghae regardless of their wishes, I must conclude that the motives are unfriendly and injurious to the interests which it is my duty to safeguard.

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