[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[17726]
No. 1.
231
[May 31.1
SECTION 1.
Sir,
Peking Syndicate to Foreign Office.-(Received May 31.)
110, Cannon Street, London, May 29, 1907. IT is with extreme reluctance that my Directors feel obliged to again address you in regard to the affairs of the Peking Syndicate. The claim for compensation presented by Sir John Jordan at the close of last year appears to be treated by the Chinese Government with indifference, if not with ridicule, and not only is permission still refused to begin work in the Ping Ting-chow area, but the like refusal is accorded to our application to proceed with the iron smelting scheme, a co-operation in which was granted to the Chinese at their own earnest request so recently as the Agreement of the 3rd July, 1905. A still further grievance is, that the Chinese Government now refuse to carry out the undertaking entered into by clause 1 of the Tao-Ching Railway Agreement, viz., to extend the railway into Shansi so as to permit of the opening of mines in the southern part of that province. The letters of Mr. Brown, the Syndicate's Agent-General, on these subjects addressed to the Railway and Mines Department remain unanswered and unacknowledged, and in private conversation with the late Director-General, Tong Shao-yi, Mr. Brown is given to understand that the Chinese Government has not the slightest intention of carrying out any of these undertakings.
The ostensible excuse is the agitation carried on in the province of Shansi by students and others against the Syndicate. That this agitation exists my Directors do not deny, and they have studiously avoided doing anything that would aggravate the situation or provoke a collision. But they have the strongest reason for thinking that the agitation has been fomented and is being kept up by one or two local officials, in particular by one named Ting Pao-chuan, who is himself personally interested in a native mining concern, and the Chinese Government, so far from discouraging it, would appear to have signified their approval by appointing him to the responsible post of Acting Provincial Treasurer. While the Syndicate is thus held at arm's length, the native Company promoted by Ting Pao-chuan is understood to be purchasing foreign machinery, and preparing to open mines in the very area marked out by the Syndicate for its sphere of operations.
In the opinion of my Directors, the defiant attitude now assumed by the Chinese Government is largely the outcome of recent political events, which have guaranteed the territorial integrity of China, and thereby eliminated the one form of pressure which was perhaps most acutely felt in former times. But the Powers which joined, or are disposed to join, in guaranteeing this integrity can never have intended that this should be used as a weapon in the hands of the Chinese to enable them to evade solemn international obligations. The guarantee involved a reciprocal duty on the part of the Chinese to observe good faith in all its engagements towards the subjects of guaranteeing Powers, and a corresponding right on the part of the Powers jointly to see that they were so observed.
My Directors therefore venture to submit whether it would not be possible to bring about some joint action at Peking so as to require the Chinese Government to carry out their engagements. Its object would be confined to purely commercial undertakings, the Agreements for which, preliminary or final, have already been accepted by the Chinese Government, and participation in which by means of share- holding is open to the world. The Agreements with the Peking Syndicate, all of which it may be remarked have been ratified by Imperial Decree, are perhaps the most conspicuous and the most important of all such undertakings. On the strength of the Syndicate's Agreements the public have invested large sums of money, not merely in England, but also in France, Holland, and Belgium, and elsewhere. At the suggestion of a number of continental shareholders, a French gentleman has recently been elected on the Board of the Syndicate, so that this Association may now claim to have somewhat of an international character. It might, therefore, very fittingly form the first subject for joint action such as is above indicated.
[2494 hh-1]
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