CO129-344 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 359

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,]

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL,

[12761]

No. 1.

357

[April 22.]

SECTION 3.

23671

|MECE

R 4 JUL 07

Peking, April 20, 1907.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-—(Received April 22.)

(No. 64.) (Telegraphic.) P.

CREATION of new Viceroyalty in Manchuria.

Please see my telegram No. 58 of the 10th April. By an Imperial Decree, which has been published this evening, a Viceroy, with control over all three provinces of Manchuria and with orders to reside from time to time in each province, has been substituted for the Tartar General at Mukden.

The following appointments have been made and gazetted:

Hsu Shih Ch'ang, who is President of the Board of the Interior in Peking, is to be Viceroy; he will have the rank of Imperial Commissioner. Tong Shoa Yi is to be Governor of the Province of Fengtien, and Acting Governors are appointed to the other two provinces.

There is a noticeable feature about these appointments, namely, that all these four men are Chinese and were formerly subordinates of the Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai; it may be expected that they will follow his policy in reorganizing the Government of Manchuria.

It is likely that the present Minister in Washington will succeed Tong in the Shui Wu Ch'u (Revenue Council).

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