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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[December 28.]
SECTION 6.
[42347]
(No. 525.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received December 28.)
Peking, November 12, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith a summary of reports received from His Majesty's Consuls in China during the last month, in regard to matters which have not been reported upon in separate despatches.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
inclosure in No. 1.
Monthly Summary of Events in China.
THE YANG-TSZE PROVINCES.
Szechuan.
THE province has, on the whole, heen peaceful during the summer, and thus the general fear that there might be a recrudescence of the disturbances at K'ai Hsien, which have been reported upon in separate despatches, has not been realized. Mr. Fox, acting British Consul-General at Ch'engtu, attributes the quiet mainly to the fact that the provisions of the Anti-Opium Edicts have not been carried out with any degree of completeness or severity.
The numbers and influence of Chinese converts to Protestantism are increasing, and collisions between them and the Roman Catholic converts are becoming more frequent and more serious. For this state of affairs it seems that jealously and lack of sympathy and co-operation between the British and American Missions on the one hand, and the French Roman Catholic Mission on the other, are mainly responsible. Each side accuses the other of undue interference on behalf of their converts. The Roman Catholics regard the Protestant missionaries as people whose main object in coming to China is to make a comfortable living for themselves and their families. On the other hand, the Protestants regard the French priests as political agents of the French Government, who obtain for their converts the status, more or less, of French citizens. The attitude of the French Consul, M. Bons d'Anty, gives colour to this charge, for he appears to take up cases officially on the slightest provocation, and makes no secret of the fact that he regards himself as the natural protector not only of the French missions, but of their native converts and inquirers. It seems a pity that the foreign Missions cannot work in barmony throughout China, in the interests of the Christian faith which they desire to propagate. The spectacle of constant quarrelling and mutual recrimina- tion between preachers of the gospel of peace is hardly an edifying one, nor one calcu- lated to bring conviction to the heathen. Another unfortunate incident has been the absence from Chengtu, during the whole of July and August and part of September, of the greater portion of the Protestant missionary community, thus entailing the closing of school, chapel, and hospital. The abandonment of the hospital, more especially during the summer months, does not inspire confidence in the earnestness of the missionaries concerned.
The Szechuan-Bankow Railway affairs seem, for the present, to have reached a deadlock owing partly to the resignation of the newly-appointed President and Vice- President, and partly to the uncertainty regarding the Governor-Generalship of the province. The Acting Viceroy, Chao Erh Feng, has been a success, but little is known of Chen K'uei Lung, who has been appointed to the substantive post, and it is not likely that much energy will be shown in the prosecution of railway enterprises until his arrival.
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