Sir,
fi
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Acting Consul Giles to Governor of Hunan,
Changsha, July 31, 1906. ON the 28th June I addressed your Excellency with reference to the right of British subjects to set up business establishments inside the city, mentioning that I had received no further statement on the subject from your Excellency, and that I should therefore be much obliged if you would let me know how the matter stood. On the 18th July I received a joint reply from the Foreign Bureau and the Customs Superin- tenden, stating that they had been instructed by your Excellency that you had received a communication on the subject from the Wai-wu Pu. The letter stated therein, with reference to the opening of a firm inside Changsha City by a British merchant, Mr. Bennertz, that they had informed the British Minister that, Mr. Bennertz being a person of no substance, the gentry and the people were opposed to his residing inside the city, but that there was no intention of imposing any restrictions on trade by foreigners.
When the Foreign Bureau and the Customs Superintendent, under instructions from your Excellency, replied to me as above, they merely stated that there was no intention of imposing any restrictions on trade by foreigners; while all reference to the question of trading inside the city--which is the crux of the whole matter-was entirely omitted. I had previously received from His Majesty's Minister in Peking a copy of a despatch addressed to him by the Wai-wu Pu, wherein it was stated that, when Changsha was opened as a Treaty port, there was no intention of imposing limitations and of not permitting foreign merchants to open business establishments inside the city; that this feeling really only arose on account of Mr. Bennertz and his landlord, and it was in no wise intended to obstruct foreign merchants and prevent them from carrying on business inside the city. The meaning of these words is as clear and unequivocal as it can be.
On comparing the joint communication which I had received from the Foreign Bureau and the Customs Superintendent with the despatch addressed to His Majesty's Minister by the Wai-wu Pu, and finding that the former had not explicitly stated, as had been done by the latter, that there was no intention of preventing British subjects from setting up business establishments inside the city, I proceeded to discuss the matter with your Excellency at a personal interview. Your Excellency was then good enough to state that, although the question of doing business inside the city had not been explicitly mentioned in the despatch, yet that you were absolutely and entirely in accord with the statement of the Wai-wu Pa that British merchants were at liberty to start business establishments inside the city of Changsha. On my asking your Excellency, se ing that you admitted the right to open firins inside the city, if you would favour ne with a supplementary despatch stating the fact in so many words, so as to facilitate the despatch of business in the future, your Excellency desired me to address you again on the subject in writing, when you would reply to me as requested.
I therefore have the honour to ask your Excellency to be good enough to address to me such a supplementary despatch, with a view to obviating the risk of misunderstandings and of their attendant complications in the transaction of future business.
Sir,
I avail, &c.
(Signed)
BERTRAM GILES.
Inclosure & in No. 1.
Hunan Foreign Bureau and Changsha Customs Superintendent to Acting Consul Giles,
Changsha, August 30, 1906.
ON the 6th August we were instructed by his Excellency the Governor that he had received from you a despatch complaining that, in the communication addressed to you by the Foreign Bureau and the Customs Superintendent jointly, these had merely stated that there was no intention of imposing any restrictions on trade by foreigners; while all reference to the question of trading inside the city-which was the crux of the whole matter had been entirely omitted. You added that you had previously received from the British Minister in Peking a copy of a despatch addressed to him by the
7
Wai-wu Pu stating that, when Changsha was opened as a Treaty port, there was no intention of imposing limitations, and of not permitting foreign merchants to open business establishments inside the city, that the feeling only arose on account of Mr. Bennertz and his landlord, and that it was in no wise intended to obstruct foreign merchants and prevent them froin carrying on business inside the city. You went on to say that the meaning of these words was as clear and unequivocal as it could be; and you therefore requested his Excellency the Governor to address to you a supplementary communication in the above sense, so as to facilitate the dispatch of business in the future and to obviate the risk of misunderstandings and of their attendant com- plications.
His Excellency having directed us to refer to the despatch received from the Wai-wu Pu and to reply to you, we have the honour to state that, when Changsha was opened as a Treaty port, the site outside the north gate had already been selected for an international Settlement, while the land along the river bank outside the west gate had been defined as the limits for the steamer wharves; and merchants of all nationalities were permitted to do business and establish themselves outside the west gate-assuredly the most convenient arrangement possible. You have been stationed at Changsha for a considerable time; it is therefore unnecessary once again to go over ground with which you must be thoroughly well acquainted.
Now that a communication has come to hand from the Wai-wu Pu, wherein the phrase occurs that there was no intention of imposing any restrictions on trade by foreigners, we shall of course in future, in conformity with the instructions of the Wai-wu Pu, consider each case as it arises on its merits, and come to an amicable settlement.
We avail, &c. (Seals of Foreign Bureau and of Customs Superintendent.)
Inclosure 6 in No. 1.
Acting Consul Giles to Governor of Hunan.
Sir,
Changsha, September 3, 1906. SOME time back, having been instructed by His Majesty's Ministers that the Wai-wu Pu had admitted the right of British merchants to set up business establishments inside the city of Changsha, I addressed your Excellency, asking for a statement on the subject. I subsequently received a joint despatch from the Burean for Foreign Affairs and from the Superintendent of Customs, wherein they merely stated that there was no intention of imposing any restrictions on trade by foreigners, and entirely omitted to make any explicit statement with reference to the establishment of firms inside the city. On my raising this point at a personal interview with your Excellency, you stated that your views as regarded the non-imposal of restrictions on foreign merchants wishing to do business inside the city were absolutely identical with those of the Wai-wu Pu. With a view to facilitating the dispatch of business in the future, I asked your Excellency to favour me with a despatch stating the fact in so many words; whereupon you desired me to address you again in writing on the subject, when you would, in reply, let me have a clear statement as to the establishment of firms inside the city.
Accordingly on the 31st July I forwarded to your Excellency a despatch, and, later on, received from you a le'ter stating that the Changsha Customs Taotai had been directed to prepare a reply. It was not, however, until the 1st September, after more than a month had elapsed, that I received a joint reply from the Changsha Customs Total and from the Foreign Bureau, while the language of the despatch was not only utterly at variance with the statement which your Excellency had personally promised to make to me, but, in addition, was entirely different from the tenor of the despatch addressed by the Wai-wu Pu to His Majesty's Minister,
That the Changsha Customs Taotai should have delayed over a month before replying clearly indicates that his intention was to put off the matter as long as possible, and that in preparing the despatch he should have ignored the promise made by your Excellency is absolutely indefensible.
Seeing that his despatch is in all respects at variance with your Excellency's own words and with the views of the Wai-wu Pu, it is quite out of the question for me to
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