C. O.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governm4966
AFFAIRS IN CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[33066]
No. 1.
RE [September
,25 OCT 09
SECTION 2,
706
(No. 282.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received September 2.)
Peking, August 5, 1909. THE two telegrams, copies of which are enclosed herewith,* were handed to me on the 26th July by M. Brederode, the Portuguese chargé d'affaires, who, in view of the unfavourable impression they conveyed respecting the Macao negotiations, had been instructed by his Government to ascertain what prospect there was, in my opinion, of the Chinese Government accepting arbitration as a solution of the question. M. Brederode explained that the telegram was not quite explicit as to whether the intention was to suggest arbitration now or only eventually when negotiations had failed.
I said that as the Commission appeared to have held only two sittings, it seemed to me altogether premature to consider such a suggestion at present. No question of even ordinary importance was ever settled in China without prolonged discussion, and a solution of the "Macao problem, which had baffled the ingenuity of diplomacy since the treaty of 1887 and had formed the subject of a historical controversy extending over three centuries, was not to be expected in two or three sittings of a commission.
On the following day, the 27th July, I received your telegram No. 124 informing me, on the authority of the Portuguese Minister, that the Chinese commissioner was adopting an absolutely unyielding attitude and would not even consent to consider the question of delimitation. You instructed me to state to the Chinese Government that while they would have our entire sympathy and assistance in securing the enforcement of any measures necessary for the suppression of smuggling, we had especial interest, in view of our treaty engagements to Portugal, in seeing that the delimitation question was amicably adjusted.
I saw Liang Ta-jen on the 29th July and spoke to him with some earnestness in the sense of your instructions. I reminded him of the language I had beld to Prince Ching at my interview of the 11th May last, respecting the proceedings of irresponsible societies at Canton and the harm they were doing to international relations. As I had said then and had repeatedly stated since this commission was agreed upon, the Chinese Government had materially prejudiced the chance of arriving at a friendly solution by their neglect in suppressing the agitation which had been carried on against delimitation by a knot of agitators at Canton.
Liang Ta-jen deprecated our intervention as altogether premature at the present stage of the negotiations. There had, so far as he knew, been only two meetings of the commissioners. At one of these the Portuguese commissioner had made a long statement and banded in a memorandum which had not yet been fully translated. Amongst other irrelevant and unreasonable requests, the Portuguese commissioner had asked that the new port of Ileungchow should not be developed in a way that would do harm to Macao.
A summary of the Portuguese statement had been telegraphed on the 25th July to the Wai-wu Pu by the Chinese commissioner who had at the same time forwarded an outline of the reply he proposed to make. Both of these documents were under the consideration of the Wai-wu Pu, who hoped to send their commissioner instructions in a few days.
I expressed a hope that the instructions would enable the commissioner to modify the attitude he had assumed by entering upon a discussion of the question on the basis of the Lisbon protocol and the treaty of 1887.
M. Brederode has since furnished me with copies of two memoranda handed by the Portuguese commissioner to his Chinese colleague, in which the Portuguese claim and the evidence in support of it are stated at length. These documents are of great interest, and for their better understanding I beg to enclose a rough sketch of the district to which they relate.
The telegrams which M. Brederode continues to receive show that the Chinese
* Not printed.
[2418 6-2]
B
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.