C.0.
15128
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
REGD 5 MAY 09
[April 3.]
SECTION 1,
19%
[12624]
(No. 71.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 3.)
Peking, February 13, 1909. I HAD the honour to mention in my despatch No. 57 of the 3rd instant that as a result of violent denunciations by Censors the President of the Board of Posts and Communications stood in danger of dismissal. The task of inquiring into the Censor's charges, of peculation chiefly, was laid upon the Grand Secretaries Sun Chia-nai and Na-t'ung, and their Report being unfavourable the Board of Civil Office was commanded by a Decree of the 6th February to administer a severe sentence, and next day another Decree announced that this sentence was dismissal from the public service.
The fallen President, Ch'en-pi, has been the most notorious figure in the higher ranks of the Central Government for a year or more, his corrupt methods being better known to foreigners perhaps, because they were applied to matters such as railways and telegraphs, in which foreigners are especially interested. His removal is a distinct gain.
His place has been taken by Hsu Shih-ch'ang, the Viceroy of Manchuria, one of Yoan Shih-K'ai's henchmen, who has a reputation for honesty,
The Manchurian Viceroyalty has been assigned to Hsi-liang, who has been ordered by Decree to come up for audience to Peking without delay. He will be replaced as Viceroy of Yunnan by Li Ching-hsi, a connection of the Chinese Minister in London, who has been in retirement since he vacated the governorship of Kuangsi in October 1005, on the score of health.
I have the honour to inclose for your information translations of the Decree and Memorial relating to the dismissal of Ch'en-pi. The latter is considered to be a more than usually judicial specimen of the Reports which decide the fate of high officers.
I have, &e.
(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Extract from the “ Official Gazette" of February 6, 1909,
DECREE RESPECTING THE DISMISSAL OF CHEN-PI. (Translation.)
CH'EN-PI, having been impeached by the Censor Hsieh Yuan Han, for wasting Government funds and for enriching himself by bribos, the Grand Secretaries Sun Chia-nai and Na-t'ung were commanded to make a just investigation of these charges.
They have now reported in their Memorial that, with regard to the accusations, Ch'en-pi secretly enriched himself in concluding foreign loans, that he started a firm for trafficking in grain, and that he took bribes, although they are undoubtedly cominouly noised abroad, yet Do actual proof has been indicated. But in his expenditure and use of funds there have been very many extragavances, and the subordinates he has from time to time introduced into the Board have certainly been improperly recommended.
At this critical time the respor sibility of this President of a Board is serious, and he evidently should have guarded his own conduct as well as that of his subordinates in an earnest endeavour to attain good results by the use of his talents and of theirs.
It now appears clearly from this inquiry that he has misused the trust which was reposed in him. Let the President of the Board of Communications, Ch'en-pi, be handed over to the [Board of Civil Office] for the determination of a severe
[2243 c-1]
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