CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 27

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

C.O.

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL

[1784]

12195 uary 13.]

RECO REGOR APR OC

SECTION 3.

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey,~(Received January 13.)

(No. 25.) (Telegraphic.) P.

Peking, January 13, 1909. MY telegram No. 4 of the 3rd instant was written before the Chinese Government had put forward the majority of the demands alluded to in your telegram No. 10, which has crossed my telegram No. 24 addressed to you yesterday on the subject of the Macao question.

The dispute has, in my opinion, reached a very critical stage, and I fear that the situation is not rendered the more hopeful by the highly unsatisfactory way in which negotiations are carried on here. The Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires does not communicate directly with the Macao Government, and is consequently unable to refute the allegations which the Chinese Government have been bringing forward against the Portuguese authorities at Macao in a succession of notes during the period from the 28th December to the 11th January inclusive. These charges, while accusing the Macao Government generally of asserting sovereignty over the territory they arbitrarily claim for their own, mention, in particular, cases where Chinese have been imprisoned for refusing to pay the land tax which the Portuguese are stated to be levying by force in the disputed districts.

It appears to me that in the appointment of a delimitation Commission lies the only hope of saving the situation.

I do not think that the attitude of the Chinese Representative at Lisbon need be taken seriously, as I am informed by Liang Tun-yen that the Chinese Minister in Paris is to be instructed to visit Lisbon specially in order to deal with the Macao dispute.

I have approved of the case of the British steamer "Fatshan "being settled in the following manner: The relatives of the deceased Chinese passenger are to receive as compensation a small sum from the owners of the vessel, the Viceroy is to withdraw his note to which the Portuguese Consul took exception, while the proceedings which were to have been taken before the Portuguese Court are now to be abandoned.

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