This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governmens.
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AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
MECO [Apr 18.12 MAY 10
SECTION 1.
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(No. 93.) Sir,
No. 1.
Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 18.)
Peking, March 30, 1910. I HAD the honour to inform you in my telegram No. 56 of the 25th instant that a decree had been issued prolonging Sir Robert Hart's leave of absence for one year, and appointing Mr. Aglen, at present commissioner of customs at Hankow, to be deputy inspector-general and acting inspector-general during Sir Robert Hart's absence.
Mr. Aglon joined the Maritime Customs Service twenty-two years ago, and is comparatively speaking a young man. His promotion was very rapid, as he became a commissioner after only nine years' service. am not personally acquainted with him, but from what I hear there is no valid ground for objecting to the appointment, which is perhaps the best that could have been made, always excepting Mr. Hippisley, if the choice was to be confined to the Customs Service. Time alone can show whether Mr. Aglen has sufficient strength of character to resist the persistent efforts of the Chinese Government to curtail the authority of the Maritime Customs.
On the other hand, I feel that we have every reason to object strongly to another appointment announced simultaneously, and that is the appointment of Sir Robert Bredon to a post in the Shui-wu Chu, or Revenue Council, which post I was subsequently informed by his Excellency Liang Tun-yen will be that of adviser.
I need not here enter into a discussion of the reasons which influenced the decision of His Majesty's Government that Sir Robert Bredon was not a fit person to occupy the post of Inspector-General of Customs, but it has always appeared to me that these reasons apply with equal, if not greater, forcé to the question of his appointment to any position under the Chinese Government which would directly or indirectly enable him to exercise any control or influence over the business and personnel of the Maritime Customs. This point I have carefully borne in mind in the recent negotiations for the choice of an acting inspector-general.
In my telegram No. 20 of the 4th February I reported that I had informed Liang Tun-yen that in view of Sir Robert Hart's illness and consequent inability to return to China His Majesty's Government considered that the time had come for the Chinese Government to carry out their undertaking to appoint a successor to Sir Robert Hart other than Sir Robert Bredou. I informed him at the same time that you had heard that there was an intention to appoint Sir Robert Bredon to the Revenue Council, and thus enable him to continue to exercise control over the Customs. I warned his Excellency that His Majesty's Government would look on such an appointment as opposed to the spirit of the agreement of the 19th February, 1908, and I remember saying that one might just as well promise not to promote a captain to the rank of major and then promote him colonel instead.
uny
Liang Tun-yen said that the Chinese Government were prepared to carry out their pledge, but that they must first ascertain definitely that Sir Robert Hart would not return. He explained that they could not appoint Mr. Hippisley, as such an appointment would offend Sir Robert Hart, and as to the rumoured intention in regard to Sir Robert Bredon, he gave me clearly to understand that he had never heard of. such proposal, and that any position or rank conferred on him would be purely honorary. I stated that I had no intention of pushing anyone's claims to the post of inspector-general; all we wanted was a suitable Englishman, who would maintain the efficacy of the Maritime Customs Service and hold the balance fairly between Chinese and foreign interests.
I did not consider that this was a matter in which we should show undue haste, but about a mouth later, hearing indirectly that there was considerable intriguing going on, that there was talk of appointing: a Chinese to the post of deputy inspector- general, and that, on the other hand, the German Minister was pushing the claims of M. Hemmeling, a German employé of the Customs, to that post, I wrote a private letter to Liang Tun-yen, who was unwell and unable to see me, and told him that in my
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