[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 604
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(21249]
No. 1.
[June 7.]
SECTION 1
C.O. 22029
RECE REG2 2 JUL 09)
(No. 177.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 7.)
Peking, May 12, 1909. YOUR telegrams Nos. 81 and 86 of the 1st and 4th instant drew my attention to reports of renewed agitation at Canton deprecating delimitation of Macao and urging the seizure of the place, and stated, on the authority of the Portuguese Minister in London, that the arrangement made at Lisbon on the 8th February last had not been confirmed by the Chinese Government, and that the posts recently occupied by the Chinese had not, in pursuance of that arrangement, been evacuated, although Portugal had given effect to her part of the engagement.
On receipt of these telegrams I lost no time in placing myself in communication with M. Brederode, the Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires, and asked him to furnish me with such information as would enable me to make a representation to the Wai-wu Pu on the subject.
M. Brederode supplied me with copies of recent correspondence which had passed between himself and the Wai-wu Pu relative to the appointment of the delimitation commission and the agitation at Canton (copies enclosed), but he was unable to give me any idea as to the scope of the Lisbon arrangement. No copy of the instrument had been sent to him, and he had been expressly instructed to abstain from all discussion of it with the Chinese authorities.
On the 4th May M. Brederode notified the Wai-wu Pu that the Portuguese Government had reason to believe that the Self-government Society was preparing for a raid on Macao, and made a significant allusion to the possible recall of a Portuguese cruiser to defend the place. Prince Ching, in a note dated the 7th instant, copy of which is enclosed, dismissed the rumours of an attack upon Macao as idle inventions, and complained in turn of the anti-Chinese campaign that was being conducted by the people and press of Macao.
At an interview which I had with the Wai-wu Pu yesterday I represented to them very strongly the risks they were running in allowing the provincial authorities at Canton to encourage an agitation against a friendly settlement of the Macao question. It was with the greatest difficulty that the delimitation commission had been arranged, and it was the obvious duty of the Chinese Government to see that nothing occurred to prejudice the negotiations beforehand. Instead of this, they were allowing an ignorant and irresponsible populace to prejudice the whole question, and to prepare the way for a miscarriage which might entail very serious results, one of which would probably be the intervention of His Majesty's Government.
The Ministers deprecated such a serious view being taken of the situation, and said that the Portuguese were attaching an altogether undue importance to the doings of the Self-government Society, whose role in this affair was confined to a mere investigation of the case from a historical point of view.
They assured me that they had scrupulously fulfilled their engagements under the Lisbon agreement of the 8th February last, and promised to send me copy of a telegram from the Viceroy at Canton reporting the withdrawal of the military post to which reference was apparently made in that arrangement. A copy of this telegram which reached me to-day is enclosed herewith. I transmit to you also copy of a despatch from His Majesty's acting consul-general at Canton, which shows only too clearly the difficulties confronting the delimitation commission.
In conclusion, I venture again to draw your attention to the serious disadvantages under which this question is being conducted here owing to the absence of proper information. It seems strange that a document of such essential importance as the Lisbon agreement of the 8th February last should not have been sent to the Portuguese legation.
In January last I advised M. Brederode to apply to the Government of Macao for maps and papers likely to be required in connection with the delimitation question.
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