[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[16998]
No. 1.
[May 13.]
SECTION 2. O
18595
RECR
168
Sir,
China Association to Foreign Office.--(Received May 13.) RF 18 JUN 10.
159, Cannon Street, London, May 11, 1910. ON the 1st January last year the association had the honour of addressing His Majesty's Government at considerable length on the subject of the extension of Shanghae settlement. Cogent reasons were advanced for the inclusion within the settlement limits of that district north of Shanghae known as the Paoshan district, and the other portion of Paoshan Hsien known as Chapel, of which it was said by our Shanghae branch in 1908 that "it would be difficult to find a more filthy or neglected spot, even in the worst slums of Chinese cities.”
Sir John Jordan stated that his own observations of the locality "convinced him that the Chinese municipal experiments there has so far proved a complete failure; squatters were living huddled together in mat-sheds, and the whole condition of the place showed little, if any, improvement upon those of an ordinary Chinese town."
Our latest information indicates that there is no amelioration visible in present conditions as compared with those existing over a year ago. Numerous cases of obstruction and collisions between the municipal and native police are of frequent occurrence, and have culminated in a position so intolerable, that the Shanghae branch of the association lately telegraphed as follows :—
44
Settlement extension, Shanghae Waterworks Company, Shanghae Gas Company experiencing strong opposition ordinary routine extension Chapei; both companies [are] pressing through consulate, who are working hard. Clear instructions [have heen sent from Washington directing [the] American Legation and consulate support extension. [In] Chinese official correspondence always in terms of settlement as Anglo- American. Joint action and pressure from London, Peking [and] Shanghae cannot fail to produce effect.
[The] police confusion [on the] border [is] as great as ever, [and] friction [is] now avoided by allowing cases [of] obstruction to slide."
This message is supplemented by a letter from the association's Shanghae brauch, from which the following is quoted :-
Both the waterworks and the gas companies are experiencing strong opposition to their ordinary routine extensions and the making of connections in Chapei.
"The waterworks company some five years ago obtained through the consulate permission from the native authorities to lay pipes in the North Honan road extension, at that time the only Chinese thoroughfare in the Paoshan district, and met with no opposition whatever to extending their system on either side of their North Honan and North Szechuan road mains. In December last, while making an addition to the water fittings in a block of Chinese houses which had recently been extended, two of the company's plumbers were arrested on private property by members of the Paoshan police and confined in Yamen in the Chapei district, all applications for release, when applied for by the company's foreign foreman, being refused. The British consul was then applied to, and after taking the matter up strongly the men were released, after having been locked up for three days. Although the older part of the block is supplied with water, the Chinese police persistently refuse to allow the new part of the block to be turned on. Pressure is also being brought on the occupants to discontinue using the company's water. Recently three applications to put water fittings into new properties have been made by the water company to the Chinese officials concerned, and in only one case has a permit been granted. This is off the North Honan road extension, and the permit was granted on the grounds that the owner of the property is employed in the Chinese Imperial post office. The two permits which have been refused are for houses off Woosung road extension and North Honan road extension ; these cases are now in the hands of the British consulate.
"With regard to the gas company, opposition has been even stronger. In 1905, being desirous of extending their mains along the North Honan road extension to
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