CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 91

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governmeg](),

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[43331]

No. 1.

89 2497

[December 12]

21 JAL 00

SECTION 7.

(No. 489.) Sir,

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 12.)

Peking, October 28, 1908. IN continuation of my despatch No. 129 of the 17th March last, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a report by the Acting British Consul-General at Mukden on the South Manchurian Railway Settlement at that place.

The area of the original Chinese Eastern Settlement, as shown on the map which accompanies this report, is given as 1,360 acres, but the South Manchurian Railway Company have since laid claim to 220 acres more land, a large part of which was comprised in the area reserved by the Chinese Government for an international settlement.

There is, however, reason to believe that the railway company will renounce this claim and content themselves with the original Russian Concession, which, seeing that the Japanese Colony has settled elsewhere, seems to be amply sufficient for all possible requirements.

I have, &c. (Signed)

Inclosure in No. 1.

Acting Consul-General Willis to Sir J. Jordan.

(No. 71. Confidential.) Sir,

J. N. JORDAN.

Mukden, October 17, 1908. WITH reference to my despatches Nos. 14 and 25 of the 17th February and the 9th March last, I have the honour to submit the following report on the South Manchurian Railway Settlement at Mukden.

I have

The map, which accompanies this despatch, has been compiled, as far as the lines demarcating the various settlements are concerned, from a plan lent to me confidentially by the Mukden Foreign Office, and is, I believe, based on a proper survey. satisfied myself by personal observation and by carefully checking certain measurements on the map that it is substantially accurate.

The area of the original Chinese Eastern Railway Settlement, as shown on this plan, amounts roughly to 9,000 mou, or about 1,360 acres, reckoning an acre as equal to 6.6 mou. Mr. Tao, the Commissioner in charge of the Foreign Office, recently admitted to me that this land was properly acquired by the Russian Company, although in a Confidential Memorandum with which he furnished me in March last the figures given were only 5,410 mou.

The extensions claimed by the South Manchurian Railway Company lie to the north of the main road between the city and the Japanese station, and amount in all to 1,450 mou, or 220 acres, of which 950 mou are taken from the land bought up by the Manchurian Government for the purpose of establishing the proposed international settlement.

It will be noted that the total area of the Japanese Settlements, according to the Chinese measurement, amounts to 1,580 acres approximately. In the Memorandum attached to Mr. Parlett's Report of the 3rd July last the area is given as 1,627 acres, and the figures given by the Japanese Consul-General to my American colleague in February last were 1,666 acres.

Mr. Tao recently informed me that he was hopeful that the Japanese Government might be persuaded to content themselves with the original Russian Concession, and recent developments would seem to show that there are some grounds for his expectation.

With the exception of the railway administration offices, and a few godowns in the immediate vicinity of the station, there are no buildings of importance on the north side * Not printed.

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