31420
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
EGP 22 SEP 09
[August 9.] 44%
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[29894]
No. 1.
SECTION 9.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 9.)
(No. 254. Very Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, July 14, 1909. AS a result of Mr. Chirol's visit to Peking, Dr. Morrison, the correspondent of the "Times," has been making some efforts to induce the Chinese Government to take a more reasonable view of the points of difference between them and Japan with regard to Manchurian questions. Dr. Morrison's own sympathics have hitherto been largely on the side of China in this controversy, and his present action may perhaps be assumed to represent not so much his personal convictions as his sense of duty to the newspaper which he represents.
The accompanying memorandum, which he has courteously furnished me for my confidential information, has been submitted by him to the Ministers of the Wai- wu Pu, and has, I understand, made a considerable impression. At all events, it seems to have convinced them of the necessity of making another and more serious attempt to find a solution of their outstanding difficulties with Japan.
I doubt, however, whether Dr. Morrison's solution of the Ch'ientao question is likely to commend itself to the Chinese in their present temperament. It appears to involve an extension of exterritorial rights at a time when Chinese public opinion is inclined to advocate their curtailment or abolition. It may be true, as Dr. Morrison says, that many Japanese subjects belonging to Formosa hold property in the province of Fukien, but the most recent doctrine enunciated by the southern Viceroys is that ownership of property in the interior debars a person of Chinese origin from claiming protection as the subject or citizen of a foreign State.
The analogy of the 1883 arrangement made with Siam, although a pertinent one, is hardly likely to appeal with much force to the Chinese, as comparisons between them and smaller States are always resented, and the Siam of a quarter of a century ago is not the ideal to which the modern Chinese aspires.
However, the question of mixed jurisdiction in Ch'iontao is not, I understand, regarded as insoluble by the Chinese, who have once or twice told me that they hoped to evolve a working arrangement on the basis of the Thibet Trade Regulations.
As to the Fakumen Railway question, my own impression is that the Japanese would have been well-advised to come to an arrangement before the advent of American capitalists tends to still further complicate the problem. Messrs. Pauling and Co, make no secret of their intention, should the necessity arise, of joining forces with the Americans, in financing and constructing the Chinchow-Taonan-fu line, and as it will be run at a distance of over 100 miles from the South Manchurian Railway and open up a new region of country, it is hard to see how Japan could reasonably offer any objections.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1,
Memorandum by Dr. Morrison,
I HAVE just returned from a visit extending over several weeks to Japan, Corea, and the Kwantung Peninsula. In the following memorandum I record the impressions which I have formed during my visit. I write quite frankly as one deeply interested in China and anxious to see all causes of misunderstanding removed from her foreign relations, As far as I understand the situation is this :-
England is at present considerably preoccupied with regard to her future relations with Germany.
Within recent times England has had in succession three great European competitors: first France, afterwards Russia, and now Germany.
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