CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 513

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

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AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

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(No. 129.) Sir,

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 2.)

[May 2.]

SECTION 1.

Peking, March 17, 1908. WITH reference to the penultimate paragraph of my despatch No. 97 of the 2nd March, I bave the honour to inclose two further despatches from His Majesty's Consul- General at Mukden on the subject of the Japanese Settlements of the South Manchurian Railway Company.

Mr. Willis corrects his former calculation of 14,000 acres and substitutes 35,809 acres as the total amount of land claimed by the Japanese Railway Company, as against 8,733 acres which are stated to represent the total original holdings of the Russian Company. According to confidential statements of the Taotai in charge of the Mukden Foreign Bureau, there has been a considerable extension of the railway ground at every important station along the line, with the single exception of Ta Shib Ch'iao. In some cases the extensions have been purchased; in others they have been simply annexed. At Liao Yang the whole of the land between the station and the city wall is stated to have been taken without payment on the plea that it was in the possession of the Russian military authorities.

I gather generally that the aim of the measures of reorganization taken by the Japanese Government is to make the Railway Settlements and property as nearly as possible part and parcel of the Kuantung territory.

I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN,

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

(No. 22.) Sir,

Acting Consul-General Willis to Sir J. Jordan.

Mukden, March 6, 1908. IN continuation of my despatch No. 15 of the 15th ultimo, I have the honour to inclose in translation copy of a leading article which appeared recently in the "Manshu Nichi Nichi," the official organ of the South Manchurian Railway Company, with reference to the reorganization of the Kuantung Government.

Under the new scheme the Governor-General of Kuantung is charged with the general supervision of the South Manchurian Railway, and the Vice-President of the Railway Company is appointed Chief of the Kuantang Civil Administration; the "Chiefs of the Settlements" are to be nominated by the President of the railway, whilst the police force, though the control is vested in the Consular officials, is maintained by the Government-General,

It would thus seem hard to determine the exact functional scope of the Railway Administration, the Government-General, and the Consular organization respectively, and the three must, I think, be regarded as constituting a single, though internally complex authority.

Mr. Kato, the Japanese Consul-General here, has stated that the Consular officials in Manchuria must refer, in all matters arising inside the railway zone, to the Governor- General of Kuantung, to whom in such cases they are directly responsible. Civil or criminal cases, concerning Japanese at any rate, will be tried by the "settlement " police magistrates, and be referred by them not to the Consular but to the Kuantung Courts. Mr. Kato, it appears, is uncertain as to how far this would apply if foreigners were concerned.

It would seem that the new scheme under which a complex authority is interposed between the Consular representatives and the Tokió Foreign Office can hardly be as effective in simplifying the treatment of diplomatic questions as the "Manshu Nichi Nichi" seems to expect.

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