[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
636
14492
[March 23
SECTION TREE 24 APR 07:
[9436]
(No. 71.) Sir,
No. L.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 23.)
Peking, February 6, 1907. IN accordance with the arrangement reported in my despatch No. 18 of the 8th January, the Wai-wu Pu produced at the interview on the 18th January their counter-draft of proposals for the settlement of the Shanghae riots case, translation of which is inclosed for your information. In this the responsibility for the failure to preserve order on the 18th December, 1905, was thrown on the Municipal Council alone, who should therefore make the necessary compensation for the losses suffered by foreigners, and as a special concession it was proposed that the Chinese sufferers should receive compassionate grants from the Chinese authorities. Yuan Taotai was absent from Shanghae at the outbreak of the riots, but hurried back as soon as he heard of it and at personal danger to himself restored order. Mr. Twyman was the cause of the riots, and if an amicable settlement was to be reached, both sides must drop their accusations against officials.
I was unable to see that this countor-draft offered any basis of settlement which would be acceptable to His Majesty's Government, and I said so.
The Grand Secretaries Na-t'ung and Chi Hung-chi were both present with his Excellency Tong Shao-yi, but the latter was the spokesman throughout the discussion. He stated that in the Chinese view, although the Shanghae Settlement was Chinese soil, the Chinese Government exercised no control within its limits. It was the Municipal Council's duty to prevent rioting, and not that of the Taotai, who had no authority to interfere. As a matter of fact, on the morning of the 18th December the latter had gone to Wusung to meet Duke Tse and the other Special Com- missioners to Europe, and on his return he did his utmost personally to quiet the people.
I reminded their Excellencies that our argument from the beginning rested on the fact that the rioters came from outside the Settlement, and that we had evidence to show that the agitation which preceded the riots was fomented with official cognizance and support. It was a matter of common knowledge that the Taotai himself in a speech to members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce on the 10th December gave the note to this movement, and that he allowed it to grow and continue, though well aware that Sir E. Satow was treating the question of the arrest of Mme. Li with conspicuous fairness and a conciliatory regard for Chinese opinion.
Tong Ta-jén entered into some details to show the injustice of Mme. Li's arrest, and held that her mere release could not have been expected to satisfy Chinese opinion. She had been asked for money by certain Chinese on her way down-river and threatened with arrest if she did not give it, and the circumstances showed that the municipal native police were in collusion with the blackmailers. The arrest had been made under warrant issued by the Mixed Court Magistrate and countersigned by the Senior Consul, but the municipal police were the persons really responsible for the crying injustice which had been done to the lady, and which could not be atoned for by merely releasing her. The police should have been punished.
I recalled to their Excellencies' recollection that an inquiry into the action of the police in the Mixed Court incident had been offered to, and refused by, the Chinese authorities at Shanghae. All along their Excellencies persisted in confusing that incident with the riots, although they were, in our view, two separate and distinct matters, but this was the first time that the circumstances preceding the arrest of Mme. I had been referred to by the Wai-wu Pu, who had made it a point from the beginning to avoid a discussion of the details. However, if the Chinese Govern- ment were determined to go behind the understanding come to with Mr. Carnegie last June, and desired to probe the whole question to the bottom, I felt sure that His Majesty's Government would offer no objection, though I candidly confessed that I saw little advantage in such a course to the Chinese Government. For precedents in which compensation had been paid by Chinese authorities for damage committed in
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