CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 683

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6. The accounts to be kept in English and in Chinese, and to be published half- yearly.

7. The London Board to be replaced by a London Committee, who, in addition to the above powers as regards the foreign general manager, would have the financial arrangement and the general control of affairs.

8. Expenditure of the Lanchow Company to be reimbursed in cash by the Trust Company, mention of which is made later on, which would receive in exchange and in due course additional bonds.

9. The Trust Company would assume the liability to pay all the debts which can be proved to be due.

A definitive arrangement having been arrived at on these bases, we should proceed to carry it out as follows:-

We should call a general meeting and propose the adoption of an Agreement with the Chinese Government, and the liquidation of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (Limited), the liquidator to transfer the whole of our mining properties to the Chinese Government against the bonds.

A new Company to be formed under some such name as the Kaiping Bondholders' Trust to take over assets and liabilities of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (Limited), including the existing debentures of the Company and to hold the Chinese Government bonds.

The Board of Directors of such Company would be Committee referred to in the proposals.

It must be perfectly understood that against the transfer of our mining properties the Committee would have the exclusive right to exploit the entire Kaiping Basin, opening up new mines if they considered it necessary, with the sole condition of finding necessary funds, and that Chinese Government will grant its good-will and support.

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,

C.O.

10492

'678

IRECO

REG? 25 MAR 09

AFFAIRS OF CHINA,

>

CONFIDENTIAL.

[8041]

[March 1.]

SECTION 1.

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 1.) (No. 63.) Sir,

Peking, February 10, 1909. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith a summary of current events, based on such Intelligence Reports from His Majesty's Consular officers as have not been forwarded to you separately during the last quarter, which has been drawn up by Mr. Seeds, Third Secretary in His Majesty's Legation.

I have, &c. (Signed)

Inclosure in No. 1.

Summary of Current Events.

Judicial.

J. N. JORDAN.

IN his despatch No. 372 of the 19th August last Sir J. Jordan reported briefly on the dissatisfaction on the part of the foreign Consuls in Tien-tsin with the Shen Pan Ting, the Chinese District Court for the trial of civil cases where foreigners are plaintiffs, the creation of which was hailed as a precursor of thorough judicial reform in China, As stated in the above despatch, approval by the Diplomatic Body of the Regulations governing the procedure in that Court was withheld, and the experience of the last few months would, from the accounts received, not seem to warrant the Legations reconsidering their decision. It would tax the ingenuity of even the warmest Chinese supporter of the "rights recovery" policy to justify the Shen P'an Ting's existence, since it rarely gives a decision in any case referred to it, and has not given any indication of an honest desire to bring cases to a conclusion without unnecessary delay. There is but small prospect of foreigners obtaining satisfactory settlements of their claims against Chinese debtors in a Court of such a nebulous character, which is not only reluctant to give a decision, but apparently powerless to enforce a decision when given. Its practical usefulness may be gauged from the fact that in the course of three whole months foreigners only obtained satisfaction in two minor cases, of which one was arranged in Peking and the other patched up by the Tien-tsin Police Depart- ment. It would seem that the intention of the Chinese in establishing this Court was not so much to deal effectively with mixed cases as to assert, if possible, some show of jurisdiction over foreigners. This is borne out by an attempt which was made to confuse the respective powers of the Shen P'an Ting and the Police Court, though a protest by the Senior Consul eventually elicited from the Taotai an acknowledgment that, under Treaty, the local authorities were only empowered to arrest a foreigner and not to try him. In this as in other matters the Chinese officials are doing their best to assert themselves as strongly as possible in everything relating to foreigners, and are buoyed up by the hope of eventually obtaining from the foreign Powers, blinded by a belief in the much-vaunted "awakening of China," the abolition of extraterritoriality. The Shen Pan Ting, however, as at present constituted, is scarcely adapted towards inspiring foreigners with the necessary sympathy for these aspirations.

Chinese Imperial Post.

The reported intention of the Chinese Government to take the control of the Postal Service out of the hands of the Imperial Maritime Customs, as reported in Sir J. Jordan's despatch No. 47 of the 1st instant, has been a subject of discussion in the native press, where it is welcomed with acclamation as an assertion of sovereign rights. It is confidently stated that the Board of Communications will assume control in the spring, though one newspaper declares, on the authority of a member of the Board in question, that the question will be put forward by China as one of the subjects of discussion at the third meeting of the Peace Conference.

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