CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 102

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

100

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[May 9.j

16664

SECTION

REC

Rro 2 JUN 10

[16000]

(No. 115.) Sir,

No. 1.

Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 9.)

Peking, April 21, 1910. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 110 of the 1st instant, in which you enquire whether the threat that the boycott at Kiukiang would be revived, unless Inspector Mears left that place before the Chinese New Year, had been put into force, and requested me to report upon the actual position in regard to the Mears's incident generally.

I was under the impression that this incident, which ended before my return from my tour of inspection in January last, had been reported to you as satisfactorily settled, but as this is not the case I have the honour to report the events subsequent to the 12th October last, when Sir John Jordan's despatch "No. 373 was written.

His Majesty's consul reported on that date that the boycott had completely ceased, and there has since been no serious attempt to revive it. His Majesty's consul was also able to persuade Inspector Mears that it would be best for him to leave Kiukiang, and to assure Mr. Liu Yuk Lin, the Wai-wu Pu councillor, who went to that port to effect a complete cessation of the boycott, that Mears would leave before the end of December.

When I was in Kiukiang towards the end of November, Mr. Werner had left, and I impressed on Mr. King the importance of preserving harmony in such a small place as Kiukiang, and urged him to lose no time in getting a new municipal council elected to take over all the municipal work which Mr. Werner had apparently been discharging himself, and when I was in Shanghae I spoke to Mr. Landale, the head of Jardine and Matheson's, about the necessity of getting Mears away.

A new municipal council was elected at Kiukiang, consisting of the agents of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire and Messrs. Jardine Matheson and of the Commissioner of Customs. The council at once offered Mears the sum of 1,000 dollars and his pay to the end of the year if he would leave the port forthwith, and the agents of the firms above mentioned informed the council that this money would be refunded by them to the council.

Mears at first asked for a bonus of one month's salary for each of his eight years' service at Kiukiang, and free passages for himself and family to Shanghae, in addition to the sum of 1,000 dollars, but he subsequently modified his proposal and asked only for the bonus and passage money above mentioned, amounting in all to about 1,600 dollars. This was accepted by the firms concerned, and Mears left Kiukiang on the 14th January last.

I have, &c.

W. G. MAX MÜLLER,

[2751 i-2]