This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government:]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL,
[24135]
No. 1.
[July 13.]
SECTION 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 13.)
(No. 241.) Sir,
Peking, May 27, 1908.
ON receipt of your telegrams Nos. 77 and 78 of the 8th instant, regarding the terms on which Japan was prepared to conclude a Telegraph Agreement with China in Manchuria, I lost no time in seeing Mr. Tong Shoa-yi, the Governor of the Southern Province of Manchuria, who happened to be in Peking at the moment, and with whom the decision of the question virtually rests. I discussed the matter at great length with Mr. Tong, but found him to be strongly opposed to the maintenance of Japanese telegraph stations at towns adjacent to the railway. He attached no importance to the fact that they were only six or seven in number, but held that China could not sanction the existence of foreign telegraph stations on her soil without doing violence to her sovereign rights. If she conceded the point, she would have Germany at Tsingtau, France on the Tonquin frontier, and Russia in Northern Manchuria claiming similar privileges. It was not reasonable, Mr. Tong contended, to continue to maintain in time of peace, and utilize for commercial purposes, telegraph lines which had originally been erected as a military necessity. The same policy had been followed by Japan in Corea after the China-Japan war of 1894, with results which were known to me.
China would have no objection to allowing the stations to remain until adequate arrangements could be made for supplying the places in question with all the telegraphic facilities which they now enjoyed.
I told Mr. Tong as delicately as I could that China could scarcely expect to deal with this question as if there had never been a war in Manchuria, Japan had already made very considerable concessions, and what was now offered represented the utmost that we had been able to obtain after the exercise of much pressure on behalf of China. I begged him not to reject the Japanese terms without carefully considering what the result would be a return probably to the chaotic condition of things which preceded the Russian Telegraph Agreement of the 7th October, 1907.
Mr. Tong's attitude throughout was that Japan might do wrong in Manchuria, but that she would not do it with his consent.
On the 19th instant I saw the Ministers of the Wai-wu Pu on the subject, and left with them a short Memorandum, copy of which I have the honour to inclose.* I reinforced the arguments used in this paper with a verbal statement of the successive efforts we had made in the interests of China, and impressed upon the Board the necessity of taking advantage of the Lisbon Conference to have the question finally settled. The Grand Secretary Na promised to consult Tong Ta-jên and the President of the Board of Communications, and let me have a reply as soon as possible.
I again visited the Wai-wu Pu on the 21st instant, and pressed them once more to come to an early decision in the sense I had previously indicated, but they still showed a strong disinclination to agree to the maintenance of the Japanese stations outside of the railway limits.
At a further interview yesterday they stated that they would communicate their decision to me to-day, and, as it was evident that it was likely to be of an unfavourable nature, I again warned them of the risk they would incur if they rejected the Japanese terms, which were the best obtainable.
They repeated that Japan might well dispense with the maintenance of the stations if they made suitable arrangements for the transmission of messages in the Japanese script.
This morning they sent me a message to say that they had decided not to comply with Japan's request for the maintenance of the seven telegraph stations, and that they would, as an alternative solution, offer to provide all facilities for transmitting
* Not received.
Page 401
LE
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government:]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL,
[24135]
No. 1.
[July 13.]
SECTION 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 13.)
(No. 241.) Sir,
Peking, May 27, 1908. ON receipt of your telegrams Nos. 77 and 78 of the 8th instant, regarding the terms on which Japan was prepared to conclude a Telegraph Agreement with China in Manchuria, I lost no time in seeing Mr. Tong Shoa-yi, the Governor of the Southeru Province of Manchuria, who happened to be in Peking at the moment, and with whom the decision of the question virtually rests. I discussed the matter at great length with Mr. Tong, but found him to be strongly opposed to the maintenance of Japanese telegraph stations at towns adjacent to the railway. He attached no importance to the fact that they were only six or seven in number, but held that China could not sanction the existence of foreign telegraph stations on her soil without doing violence to her sovereign rights. If she conceded the point, she would have Germany at Tsingtau, France on the Tonquin frontier, and Russia in Northern Manchuria claiming similar privileges. It was not reasonable, Mr. Tong contended, to continue to maintain in time of peace, and utilize for commercial purposes, telegraph lines which had originally been erected as a military necessity. The same policy had been followed by Japan in Corea after the China-Japan war of 1894, with results which were known to me.
China would have no objection to allowing the stations to remain until adequate arrangements could be made for supplying the places in question with all the telegraphic facilities which they now enjoyed.
I told Mr. Tong as delicately as I could that China could scarcely expect to deal with this question as if there had never been a war in Manchuria, Japan had already made very considerable concessions, and what was now offered represented the utmost that we had been able to obtain after the exercise of much pressure on behalf of China. I begged him not to reject the Japanese terms without carefully considering what the result would be a return probably to the chaotic con- dition of things which preceded the Russian Telegraph Agreement of the 7th October, 1907.
Mr. Tong's attitude throughout was that Japan might do wrong in Manchuria, but that she would not do it with his consent.
On the 19th instant I saw the Ministers of the Wai-wu Pu on the subject, and left with them a short Memorandum, copy of which I have the honour to inclose.* I reinforced the arguments used in this paper with a verbal statement of the successive efforts we had made in the interests of China, and impressed upon the Board the necessity of taking advantage of the Lisbon Conference to have the question finally settled. The Grand Secretary Na promised to consult Tong Ta-jên and the President of the Board of Communications, and let me have a reply as soon as possible.
I again visited the Wai-wu Pu on the 21st instant, and pressed them once more to come to an early decision in the sense I had previously indicated, but they still showed a strong disinclination to agree to the maintenance of the Japanese stations outside of the railway limits.
At a further interview yesterday they stated that they would communicate their decision to me to-day, and, as it was evident that it was likely to be of an unfavourable nature, I again warned them of the risk they would incur if they rejected the Japanese terms, which were the best obtainable.
They repeated that Japan might well dispense with the maintenance of the stations if they made suitable arrangements for the transmission of messages in the Japanese script.
This morning they sent me a message to say that they had decided not to comply with Japan's request for the maintenance of the seven telegraph stations, and that they would, as an alternative solution, offer to provide all facilities for transmitting
* Not received.
[1865 n- -1]
401
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