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opinion the appointment of a Chinese as deputy inspector-general could well be interpreted as conflicting with the clear intention of clause 7 of the Anglo-German Loan Agreement of 1896 and clause 6 of the Loan Agreement of 1898, which provide that "the administration of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service shall remain as at present constituted during the currency of this loan."
As soon as Liang Tun-yen had recovered I called upon him and enquired whether the Chinese Government had yet come to any decision. He said that they had, but he was not yet at liberty to disclose the name of the person they had selected, though he assured me that he would be quite acceptable to this legation. He stated that there was no truth in the rumour that they had thought of appointing a Chinese deputy inspector-general, though he had thrown out such a suggestion to the German Minister when the latter had urged the advisability of appointing a German to the post. He agreed with me that in order to avoid friction and international jealousies it would be best to abolish the post of deputy inspector-general, which was a useless and superfluous expense, and he added that the Chinese Government were in favour of doing so on Sir Robert Hart's definite retirement. For the present, however, they proposed to prolong Sir Robert Hart's leave for another year as a token of gratitude for the great services he had rendered to China, and the new man would be appointed deputy inspector-general to act for Sir Robert Hart during his absence. It would certainly have been more satisfactory if Sir Robert Hart had seen fit to resign, now that it seems a practical impossibility for him ever to return to his work in China, but I felt that it would be impossible for me to object to the course the Chinese Govern- ment proposed to take. On this occasion also Liang Tun-yen gave me no reason to suppose that they were merely going to promote Sir Robert Bredon to a post on the Revenue Council.
Again, when he informed me of the appointment of Mr. Aglen after a dinner given to the heads of missions by the Wai-wu Pu on the 19th instant, he still omitted to mention anything about Sir Robert Bredon's new post, neither did he make any official or private communication to me on the subject, though the edict was issued on Tuesday and the fact of Mr. Aglen's appointment was known in Shanghae on Thursday. I wrote to him on Thursday afternoon to enquire why the appointment had not been made public, as he had given me to understand would be the case on Tuesday, but it was not till I saw the announcement in a Tien-tsin paper on Friday, the 25th March, that I was made aware of the appointment of Sir Robert Bredon to the Revenue Council.
I immediately went to the Wai-wu Pu and had an interview with Liang Tun-yen, the substance of which I telegraphed to you so fully the same evening that I will not trouble you with a repetition of all that was said on both sides beyond stating that Liang's disingenuous explanations of his earlier statements to me and his attempts to prove that Sir Robert Bredon's new position was purely honorary and would give him no control or influence over the Maritime Customs were far from convincing.
On the 28th instant I had an interview with their Excellencies Na-t'ung and Liang Tun-yen, at which I repeated the arguments I had before used against Sir Robert Bredon's appointment, and added that, though I had as yet received no reply from you to my telegram, I had very little doubt that His Majesty's Government would look on the appointinent as opposed to the spirit of the promise of the Chinese Government of the 19th February, 1908, and that this last action on their part would only tend to strengthen your conviction as to the generally unsatisfactory attitude of the Chinese Government in their dealings with us. Their Excellencies tried to convince me that the appointment was as a matter of fact purely honorary, and instanced Sir Walter Hillier's position as proving how little authority a foreign adviser was allowed to exercise in China. Being without instructions, I did not continue the argument, but
would point out that the cases are quite dissimilar, and that in Sir Robert Bredon His Majesty's representative in Peking would have an avowed enemy, who would not be restrained by patriotic motives from using his influence to thwart him at every turn.
Several inspired articles have appeared in the local press during the past few days praising Sir Robert Bredon's appointment, and emphasising the fact that he will still be in a position to exercise authority over the Maritime Customs Service. The enclosed article from the "Peking Daily News "* fairly represents the Chinese view as to the position that the new deputy inspector-general should occupy towards the Chinese Government, and the generally prevalent idea as to the powers and duties attaching to Sir Robert Bredon's new post.
* Not printed.
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I can only say that at present the Chinese Government have succeeded in offending everybody: Sir Robert Bredon is annoyed at being ousted from his present post, Mr. Aglen is doubtful as to whether he should accept the appointment under present conditions, the members of the Customs Service are nervous as to the influence that their late chief may be able to exercise over them, my foreign colleagues feel that they will have more difficulty than ever in settling customs questions, English banking and commercial interests will, I presume, object strongly, and Ilis Majesty's Govern- ment have been openly defied.
The Chinese Goverument have done what they could to disprove the statement of Yuan Shih-k'ai recorded in Sir John Jordan's despatch No. 66 of the 5th February, 1908, that His Majesty's Government might rest assured that the Chinese Government would never sacrifice the friendship of Great Britain for the sake of any individual Englishman. I can only express the hope that it may be found possible to find some means to cancel the appointment of Sir Robert Bredon to the Revenue Council.
I have, &c.
W. G. MAX MÜLLER.
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