CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 393

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

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

39126 [October 5.]

SEOTIB 46 NOV 07

330

[33095]

No. 1.

(No. 387.) Sir,

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received October 5.)

Peking, August 16, 1997. I HAVE the honour to report that the French Minister, before proceeding on leave of absence to Europe, recently informed me that the Legation had received instructions to support me in securing the removal of some local officials who were offering opposition to the Peking Syndicate in Shansi. In thanking M. Bapst for his kind offer of co-opera- tion, of which I should gladly avail myself when an opportunity presented itself, I explained to him that the situation had changed since these instructions were issued, and that the present position was that the Ageut-General of the Syndicate was awaiting the return of Ting Ta-jên, the Judge of the province, to commence negotiations for a settlement of the question.

Since my interview with Prince Ch'ing, an account of which was furnished to you in my despatch No. 239 of the 16th May, I have several times pressed the Wai-wu Pu to expedite the return of Ting Ta-jén, and warned them that the longer they delayed the greater would be the claim and the difficulty of settlement. On the 13th instant the Grand Secretary Na promised to send a telegram to Ting ordering him to hasten his movements,

Two things appear to me to be absolutely essential if this question is ever to reach a solution. One is that the Syndicate should have an agent here whose sole duty it should be to keep the matter constantly before the attention of the Chinese authorities. The second and still more important requisite for a settlement is that the Syndicate should be prepared to modify the extreme view it holds of the rights granted under the Agreement of 1898, and negotiate for a practical working arrangement with the Chinese authorities.

This is the course that has been followed by the British and Chinese Corporation and other Syndicates which obtained Railway Concessions in 1898. They have kept agents steadily at work for some years past in Peking, and have, as the result of long negotiations, modified their original grants in a way to suit the altered conditions of the time.

Shansi is a province in which there is a large body of British missionaries, whose views on this question are recorded in the inclosures forwarded in your despatch No. 214 of the 28th May last; and without indorsing all that is urged therein; still it would not be wise to incur the risk of inciting popular feeling in a province which has had such a tragical history.

I take this opportunity of inclosing copy of a letter addressed to me by the Rev. Stanley P. Smith, together with copy of my reply, on this subject.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. N. JORDAN,

Your Excellency,

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

The Rev. S. P. Smith to Sir J. Jordan,

Tsechow-fu (South-East Shansi), við Hwaiching-fu, August 7, 1907.

IN November of last year feeling ran very high here against the Peking Syndicate. It died down considerably when we made it known that the Syndicate was only opening work at Ping Ting Chow. But our work was so far affected by the agitation that, whereas the year previous we had 160 men in our opium refuge, this year we had only five in the same time.

I have not seen a copy of Dr. Morrisson's letter to "The Times" concerning the Syndicate, but have by me a comment on the same in "The North China Herald" of the 12th July.

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