CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 462

C.O.

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government. 9075

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[B]

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[18299]

No. 1.

(REG? 8 JUN OS,

[May 15.]

460

SECTION 3.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 15.)

(No. 130. Confidential.) Sir,

Peking, March 29, 1909. WITH reference to my telegram No. 72, I have the honour to report that the proposal which the Chinese Government made some days ago through the Japanese Legation here to refer all questions in dispute between the two countries in Manchuria to the arbitration of The Hague Tribunal has been rejected by the Japanese Government.

These questions, six iu number, of which the Kantao and Fakumen are the principal, have formed the subject of frequent conferences between the Japanese Minister and Liang Tun-yen, the President of the Wai-wu Pu, but practically no progress has been made towards a solution. It is understood that if a settlement of the Kantao affair could have been arranged, the other matters would have presented comparatively little difficulty, but the Japanese, while admitting the Chinese title to the greater part of the district, asserted their right of jurisdiction over the Corean settlers, who number some 40,000. The Chinese vehemently contested this point, and foresaw great danger in allowing Japan to exercise an authority over people living on their soil.

Liang Tun-yen frequently complained of the unyielding attitude of Japan, and it is understood that he acted upon the advice of the American Minister in proposing arbitration as a way out of the impasse.

The proposal would scarcely seera to have been made in a serious spirit, and the Japanese appear to me to have been justified in rejecting it.

In this, as in all other questions which are under consideration between China and foreign Powers, the difficulty is in finding any one on the Chinese side of sufficient weight to speak with full authority on behalf of his Government. Liang Tun-yen, who is conducting a number of questions with the Legations, can only negotiate subject to a reference to the Grand Council, and even the latter body seems at times to have less freedom of decision under the Regency than it had during the régime of the late Emperor and Empress Dowager.

Mr. Ijuin, the Japanese Minister, attributes his failure to come to an arrangement to the present lack of organization in the Central Government, and justly considers that the Chinese would do better to improve their own administrative machine than to delegate its duties to The Hague Conference.

(Copy to Tôkiô.)

[2265 p-3]

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. N. JORDAN.

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