This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(19638)
No. 1.
22709
[June 9.]
1908 JUN 08 SECTION 1.
748
(No. 109.) Sir,
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 9.)
Tokió, May 12, 1908.
WITH reference to your telegrams Nos. 30 and 31 of the 4th and 7th instant respectively, on the subject of the Chinese boycott of Japanese goods, I have the honour to report that I at once informed the Minister for Foreign Affairs in a private note of the instructions sent to His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton. I have also informed his Excellency of the contents of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong, copy of which I have the honour to inclose herewith, giving an account of the steps taken in the Colony to counteract the boycott.
Count Hayashi has expressed himself as highly gratified at the friendly action of His Majesty's Government in this matter, and it is evident that the Japanese Government deeply appreciate such action coming, as it does, at a moment when Japan is being attacked on all sides in China.
In my conversations and communications with Count Hayashi on the subject of the boycott I have been careful to impress upon him the impossibility and the impolicy of our attempting to do more than let the Chinese authorities know in a friendly and unofficial manner that we consider that the boycott can serve no useful purpose.
Sir,
have, &c. (Signed)
CLAUDE M. MacDONALD.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Governor Sir F. Lugard to Sir C. MacDonald.
Government House, Hong Kong, April 29, 1908.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your Excellency's despatch of the 16th instant, with inclosure, and I am glad to learn that the Japanese Government were gratified by the action taken in this Colony in reference to the boycott.
2. No public meeting has been held by the Chinese here in order to promote the boycott, and no such meeting would be allowed. The action taken has been entirely confined to private communications between merchants. A few posters were affixed to walls advocating the boycott, and these were immediately pulled down by the police, who have orders to stop any such action. I personally summoned the two Chinese members of Council and asked them whether any threats or intimidation were being used. They replied emphatically that this was not the case, and they expressed the opinion that there was not any great sympathy with the movement such as was shown in the American boycott, and that the merchants who had taken part in it had probably done so from motives of self-protection lest they should themselves be boycotted by Canton; they added that the Chinese here recognized that Japan is the ally of Great Britain. The vernacular press, moreover, has done nothing to encourage the movement, and has merely reported current events concerning it. On the 27th March the notice, of which I attach a translation, appeared. The person referred to was not a Chinese official, but a representative of a Cantonese Society called the Self-Government Society. I considered it advisable, however, to direct the Registrar-General to warn the local Chinese papers against publishing anything which might incite to the boycott. He did so, and on the 13th instant a paragraph, of which I attach a translation, appeared, since which date there have been practically no references to the matter.
3. In reply to the last paragraph of your Excellency's letter, I have not been able to discover any foundation for the report that American and German merchants are supporting the movement, though they may be seizing the opportunity to push the sale of their own goods.
I have, &c. (Signed) F. D. LUGARD.
[1819 --1]
O
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(19638]
No. 1.
22709
[Jithe 9.]
im 93 JUN 08 SECTION 1.
748
(No. 109.) Sir,
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 9.)
Tokió, May 12, 1908. WITH reference to your telegrams Nos. 30 and 31 of the 4th and 7th instant respectively, on the subject of the Chinese boycott of Japanese goods, I have the honour to report that I at once informed the Minister for Foreign Affairs in a private note of the instructions sent to His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton. I have also informed his Excellency of the contents of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong, copy of which I have the honour to inclose herewith, giving an account of the steps taken in the Colony to counteract the boycott.
Count Hayashi has expressed himself as highly gratified at the friendly action of His Majesty's Government in this matter, and it is evident that the Japanese Govern- ment deeply appreciate such action coming, as it does, at a moment when Japan is being attacked on all sides in China.
In my conversations and communications with Count Hayashi on the subject of the boycott I have been careful to impress upon him the impossibility and the impolicy of our attempting to do more than let the Chinese authorities know in a friendly and unofficial manner that we consider that the boycott can serve no useful purpose.
Sir,
have, &c. (Signed)
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
CLAUDE M. MacDONALD.
Governor Sir F. Lugard to Sir C. MacDonald.
Government House, Hong Kong, April 29, 1908.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your Excellency's despatch of the 16th instant, with inclosure, and I am glad to learn that the Japanese Government were gratified by the action taken in this Colony in reference to the boycott.
2. No public meeting has been held by the Chinese here in order to promote the boycott, and no such meeting would be allowed. The action taken has been entirely confined to private communications between merchants. A few posters were affixed to walls advocating the boycott, and these were immediately pulled down by the police, who have orders to stop any such action. I personally summoned the two Chinese members of Council and asked them whether any threats or intimidation were being used. They replied emphatically that this was not the case, and they expressed the opinion that there was not any great sympathy with the movement such as was shown in the American boycott, and that the merchants who had taken part in it had probably done so from motives of self-protection lest they should themselves be boycotted by Canton; they added that the Chinese here recognized that Japan is the ally of Great Britain. The vernacular press, moreover, has done nothing to encourage the movement, and has merely reported current events concerning it. On the 27th March the notice, of which I attach a translation, appeared. The person referred to was not a Chinese official, but a representative of a Cantonese Society called the Self-Government Society. I con- sidered it advisable, however, to direct the Registrar-General to warn the local Chinese papers against publishing anything which might incite to the boycott. He did 80, and on the 13th instant a paragraph, of which I attach a translation, appeared, since which date there have been practically no references to the matter.
3. In reply to the last paragraph of your Excellency's letter, I have not been able to discover any foundation for the report that American and German merchants are supporting the movement, though they may be seizing the opportunity to push the sale of their own goods.
I have, &c. (Signed) F. D. LUGARD.
[1819 --1]
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