C.0.
33552
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Gopment.]
6
separate wing for juvenile offenders. There is a staff of 80 attendants, including female warders. An infirmary and ward for infectious cases have been added, and a native doctor is in residence. There is also an industrial school attached to the gaol, but this is more for show than use at the present time. The whole building is scrupulously clean and under good management. I could not help remarking to the judge, who was accompanying me, that the easy, not to say comfortable, life inside the prison might make it difficult to keep down the number of criminals once the gaol comforts became generally known. He laughed, and said his prisoners were a good deal better off than the poor law-abiding citizens of Yunnan-fu. He explained that this new prison was a model one, and he believed that only three others of a similar type existed throughout China-one in Hunan, one in Chibli, and the other at Peking. It would certainly seem that the new prison is far too ambitious and costly an establish. ment for such a place as Yunnan-fu, where the number of bad characters is markedly less than in any other provincial capital of China with which I am acquainted. It was one of the building fads of Hsi Liang, who had bricks and mortar on the brain during his stay at Yunnan-fu.
Granary-Work on the new granary had been stopped on the departure of Hsi Liang, but has been recommenced. The acting governor-general told me he intends to store rice as soon as possible in case of a failure of this year's crop. If there should happen to be a nice famine and no provision had been made, troubles would, he feared, break out at Yunnan-fu and spread to the rest of the province.
This
Attitude of the Yunnanese.-The officials, who are natives of other provinces, complain of the difficulties raised for them by the gentry class, and say that the cry in Yunnan is rather " Yüunan for the Yunnanese" than "China for the Chinese," ery seems to be made by a comparatively small class, e.g., the gentry and the discontented student educated in Japan. The mass of the Yunnan Chinese appear to me to show no desire for reforms on Western lines at the present moment. They remain the same as ever--an indolent, pleasure-loving, and good-tempered people.
E. C. WILTON.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[33066]
(No. 267.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
(REGR 12 OCT 09
588
[September 10.]
SECTION 1.
Foreign Office, September 10, 1909. I HAVE received your despatch No. 282 of the 5th ultimo reporting on the present position of the Sino-Portuguese negotiations in regard to Macao.
Your action generally, as described in the above despatch, as well as your proposal to warn the Chinese Government that persistence in their present intractable attitude may involve a degree of intervention on the part of His Majesty's Government which in the interests of friendly relations between the two countries it is desirable to avoid, have my approval.
I am, however, to add, for your own information, that such intervention would in any circumstances be confined to supporting the Portuguese demand to have the question referred to arbitration, in the event of the joint commission failing to arrive at any satisfactory solution of the question.
I am, &c.
E. GREY.
Q
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