CO129-363 - Public Offices & Others - 1909 — Page 366

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Our Ministry find that, with regard to the conservancy of the Whangpoo, it is China's concern to raise funds and arrange herself. In spring or summer of next year the work can be finished. China has already done in an exhaustive way all duties arising from the special treaty regarding the conservancy of the Whangpoo, it cannot happen that any country has again a view to the contrary (a different view). As to the dredging, working funds have been provided which are outside the sum fixed originally. We have also received a telegrain from the Shanghae taotai that on the 12th instant (the 20th October) Engineer de Rijke has returned to Shanghae from Japan, so the date for starting work can be fixed, and there is nothing which could make it necessary to reopen the negotiations. But as the Chinese Government regard the affair as a very important one, the Governor of Kiangsu has already been ordered specially by the Emperor to proceed to Shanghae and to inspect, and he must be able to find a reliable way to obtain a satisfactory result (reform).

All matters referred to in M. de Rijke's report, the Governor of Kiangsu also must deliberate one and all, and it is not necessary to open the negotiations. We consider it necessary to communicate this to your Excellency the Dean, that you may take note and inform their Excellencies the Ministers of all countries residing in Peking.

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no longer liable for carrying the work, as originally contemplated, to completion. I hold that China is bound either to provide the funds for the completion of the improvement of the course of the Whangpoo as indicated in the protocol of 1901 or to revert to the principle laid down in that instrument, in accordance with which one half of the necessary funds is to be provided by her and the other half by the foreign interests concerned, whose share in the control of the expenditure of the money naturally revives.

J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure 5 in No. 1.

Dean's Circular of November 6, 1909.

CONFORMÉMENT à la décision prise dans la séance du corps diplomatique du Jer courant, le doyen s'est rendu hier à l'Ouaï-ou Pou pour insister afin que le dragage soit recommencé sans retard. Son Excellence Liang Tun-yen a promis de télégraphier à Shanghaï dans le sens de cette démande,

Quant à la signification de la dernière note officielle du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères du 26 écoulé, communiqué au corps diplomatique par la circulaire No. 141, les explications enes avec Mr. Liang Tun-yen ne laissent plus subsister aucun doute sur ce que le Gouvernement se croit dégagé des obligations résultant du protocole final par rapport à l'amélioration du Whangpoo. Tout de même, le dit Ministère des Affaires Etrangères a reconnu la nécessité et a confirmé l'intention du Gouverne ment chinois de continuer les travaux de régularisation, mais de son propre chef et à sa guise,

KUCZYNSKI,

Inclosure 6 in No. 1.

Minute by Sir J. Jordan on Dean's Circular of November 6, 1909.

I CANNOT assent to the view that the Chinese Government is released from the obligations of the final protocol of 1901, and is at liberty to continue the conservancy work in its own right and in its own way.

The protocol of 1901 and the “ règlement" attached thereto created a mixed Conservancy Board, with jurisdiction on the Whangpoo River from the lower limit of the Kiangnan arsenal to the Yang-tsze. The expenses of improving the course of the river were estimated at 460,000 taels a-year, half of which was to be provided by the Chinese Government and half by the foreign interest concerned. It specified the manner in which the revenue for the work was to be raised and provided, that, if it proved insufficient, it could be increased by bringing the respective moieties up to a figure which would be adequate to meet the requirements of the case.

At the special request of the Chinese Government the protocol of 1905 was substi- tuted for the above, and under this China undertook herself to carry out the conservancy work and to bear the whole expense of it.

There is nothing to my mind in this protocol, or in the correspondence which passed at the time, to show that there was any intention of reducing the work to be done, and consequently of diminishing the possible expenditure to be incurred. The work has now come to a standstill for want of funds, and the Chinese Government have officially stated that they expect to have it all completed in the spring or summer of next year. This means that a large portion of the river included in the 1901 protocol is regarded as excluded from the 1905 one, and that the Chinese are

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