CO129-363 - Public Offices & Others - 1909 — Page 340

CO

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government443

Rece

Rho° 24 Fr 09

[B]

AFFAIRS OF CHINA,

CONFIDENTIAL.

[44971]

No. 1.

[December 11.]

SECTION 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 11.)

(No. 386. Confidential.) Sir,

Peking, October 23, 1909.

I HAVE the honour to report that Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener arrived in Peking on the 13th instant, and left by special train on the 21st on his way to Japan via Manchuria, where he intends to visit the battlefields of the late war.

Lord Kitchener, who was the guest of the legation during his stay here, received every mark of attention from the Chinese Government and the members of the Imperial Family. He was received in audience by the Prince Regent, and was entertained at dinner by Prince Tsai-t'ao, the Regent's brother, Prince Yu Lang, and Prince Tsai-fu, the son of Prince Ch'ing.

The Board of War and the Wai-wu Pu gave a joint dinner in his honour in the new buildings of the latter department, at which Prince Tsai-tao, Prince Su, Prince Yü Lang, Prince Tsai-fu, and nearly all the leading officials in Peking were present.

A review of the troops stationed to the south of Peking was included in the programme, but Lord Kitchener did not seem to be favourably impressed with what he saw of China's modern army. The men, he admitted, appeared to form good military material, but the officers whom he met, with one exception, struck him as lacking in capacity and initiative.

Peking, as a whole, in spite of the improvements which it has undergone in recent years, was, I fear, somewhat of a disappointment to the Field-Marshal. The Imperial Palace, the palaces of the Princes, and the private residences of high officials naturally appeared to him rather dingy and badly kept as compared with the surroundings of the courts of the native States in India.

The general impression which Lord Kitchener gathered from his visit to China is one that no candid observer of the situation in the Far East can fail to share. It is that the helpless position of China as a military Power must, sooner or later, attract the cupidity of Japan. He thinks it impossible that a comparatively poor but highly efficient Power like Japan can long resist the temptation which the spectacle of her rich but unwarlike neighbour now presents.

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

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