ms Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
39126 [May 18.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[16209]
No. 1.
SERIGONE9 NOV 07
331
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 18.)
Peking, April 2, 1907.
(No. 160.) Sir,
I HAVE the honour to forward to you herewith a summary of events which have occurred in China since the date of my despatch No. 111 of the 4th ultimo, and concerning which no separate despatches have been furnished.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Monthly Summary of Events in China.
1. Changsha.
Yu Chih-mo (see Mr. Carnegie's despatch No. 363 of the 3rd September, 1906).— His Majesty's Acting Consul reports that this man, who was one of the most dangerous characters in Hunan, and who was arrested last August and finally sentenced to a term of imprisonment, has now been beheaded. always was to behead him, and his execution was only delayed by threats of reprisals on There is no doubt that the intention the part of the students of the Secret Societies. That the authorities should now openly announce the fact that he has been executed testifies to the improved state of affairs at the present moment.
2. Chengtu.
Szechuan-Hankow Railway.—The accounts for the period the 16th December to 18th January, 1907, balance at 2,099,167 Kuping t. 7 m. 3 e., the balance carried forward being 2,055,866 t. 8 m. 4 c.
3. Chinkiang.
There has been a considerable amount of destitution consequent upon the floods in the late summer.
The crops in the districts about the old bed of the Yellow River with Suchien as a centre were almost entirely destroyed. In December, starvation having begun to make itself felt among the villages, the villagers began to flock into the towns, which is, on a limited scale, an ordinary annual occurrence at winter time. The numbers, however, grew abnormally great, due in part to the gregarious nature of the villager; if a few families in a village decided to emigrate to a town, many, if not all, of the remaining families in the village accompanied them, although they were not in mediate want.
This clannish adhesion is due to the lawless state of the district, the villagers feeling that any reduction of their numbers threatens the safety of those remaining. As a result of this, wholesale emigration camps of refugees were formed at a few places on the Grand Canal, the principal one being at Chingkiang-fu, where some 400,000 were reported to be congregated, the next camp in point of size being at Yangchow, with an estimated number of 40,000 refugees. The Chinese officials took half-hearted measures to deal with the problem of organizing and feeding the refugees Chingkiang-fu, and after about two months succeeded in persuading them to return their homes. This was an excellent thing, as the camp was a hot-bed of filth. In Chinkiang itself the immigrants are numbered some 8,000 or 9,000, the number in a normal winter being about one-third of that figure. The Taotui and others ave organized relief.
Grand Canal.-A sum of 90,000 taels is supposed to be set aside annually for the onservancy of the canal, but it is questionable how much of that sum is devoted to its
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