CO129-344 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 527

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

· CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[1577]

No. 1.

525 [February 2.]

SECTION 1.

T

(No. 42.) Sir,

Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan,

Foreign Office, February 2, 1907. IN my despatch No. 306 of the 5th September last, you were requested to inform the Wai-wu Pu that His Majesty's Government could not admit the contention of the Chinan Settlement Board that foreigners could not be allowed to establish places of business or carry on trade outside the Chinan Foreign Settlement.

Since then you have privately drawn attention to the fact that in the instructions given to His Majesty's Consul at Chinan-Fu by His Majesty's Minister, copy of which was inclosed in his despatch No. 54 of the 8th February last, Sir Ernest Satow instructed Mr. Clennell to impress on the Governor of Shantung that if His Majesty's Government consented to a definite area being limited for actual trading, there seemed to be no reason why residence should be confined to the Settlement. These instructions which were approved in my despatch No. 98 of the 2nd April, were communicated by His Majesty's Consul to the Governor, and passed on by him to the Chinese Settlement Board, with the result that the latter made the proposal against which you have been instructed to protest.

You point out that if you inform the Wai-wu Pu that the Board's assertion is a direct infraction of Treaties, you will be met with the reply that it is practically identical with His Majesty's Consul's demand, and you propose not to take the action requested in my despatch, but simply to revert to the position which Sir Ernest maintained in his note to Prince Ch'ing of the 23rd March, 1905, and to insist that any British subjects who may establish themselves in business at Chinan should in practice enjoy the same rights as they do under Treaty at other ports.

I concur in your view of the matter and approve the course of action which you propose to adopt.

I am, &c. (Signed) E. GREY.

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