CO129-350 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 411

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

409

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[42328]

No. 1.

C. C. 3394

[December 2+]

TRECH

SECTION 29 JAN 08

Mr. Beckett to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 28.)

(No. 58. Confidential.) Sir,

Bangkok, November 19, 1907. AMONGST a large number of congratulatory addresses presented to His Majesty on his arrival in Bangkok on the 17th instant from his recent tour in Europe was one from the Chinese official and commercial community, au authorized translation of which and of the reply of His Majesty thereto I have the honour to inclose.

Before proceeding to make certain observations on this Chinese address and the reply, I should mention that a few months ago considerable excitement was caused in Siamese Government circles as well as amongst the Chinese community by announce- ments appearing in the Hong Kong, Saigon, and Singapore press that Chinese war-vessels were about to proceed, amongst other places, to Siam with a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the general status and condition of the Chinese residents. The vessels were reported to be already anchored outside the bar, meetings were held by the heads of the Chinese community to formulate reception arrangements, and the Siamese Cabinet had hurried consultations as to the best methods of solving the difficult problem thus presented of the reception of Chinese Envoys, as to whose arrival they had received no intimation from the Chinese Government. In the end, however, the vessels did not come to Siam, but were apparently recalled to China after proceeding as far as Saigon.

I have a shrewd suspicion that urgent Siamese representations through their Consul in Hong Kong had not a little to do with this change of the Chinese programme. This deduction is, I think, obvious when I state that Prince Devawongse, when receiving me at a ball given by bim on the 16th instant in honour of the King's return, had no sooner shaken hands than he suddenly launched with evident pleasure into a statement that a Chinese Commercial Mission of three members, headed by the Vice-Minister of Agriculture, was shortly coming to Siam, and reiterated with much emphasis that the Mission was entirely non-political and non-diplomatic.

Knowing the unwillingness of Siam to revive in any form the long-dormant claim of China to consider Siam as a tributary and vassal State, and remembering also the treatment of Prince Devawongse himself as a Third Class Mandarin by the Chinese authorities at Canton during the Prince's visit on his way back from London in 1887 (vide Mr. Gould's despatch No. 10 of the 13th February, 1888, and Lord Salisbury's despatch to Mr. Gould No. 17, of the 29th March, 1889), I sounded the Prince as to the diplomatic relations, if any, existing between his Government and that of Peking. He said that there had been no such relations since 1851, when the Siamese Govern- ment made strenuous representations in connection with the murder of the crew of a Siamese barque at the time of the Taiping rebellion, and altogether failed to obtain redress. It was further evident to me, from the Prince's remarks, that the Siamese Government would use every effort to prevent China from establishing diplomatic and Consular representatives in Siam.

Having occasion to visit Mr. Strobel yesterday, I referred to my conversation with Prince Devawongse in order to elicit further information regarding the Chinese Com- mercial Mission.

Mr. Strobel endorsed what the Prince had told me as to the Mission being non- political and non-diplomatic, and went on to explain that in drafting the King's reply to the Chinese address, he had considered the opportunity a good one, as well as a very necessary one at the present juncture, to make a specific declaration of policy as regards China and the Chinese in Siam. It would, he said, be most unfortunate for Siam if China were to be officially represented at the Court of Bangkok. The great majority of the population of Bangkok were Chinese, or the descendants of Chinese by Siamese mothers. A Chinese Representative would thus exercise a power and influence which would be little short of disastrous. In his draft reply, therefore, the following declara- tion of policy appeared:

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