This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C O
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[16004]
No. 1.
[May 9.]
16664
97
RECE SECTION 1. REG 2 JUN 10
(No. 119.) Sir,
Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received May 9.)
Peking, April 21, 1910. THE telegrams which I have sent you beginning with my telegram No. 71 of the 14th April and ending with my telegram No. 81 which I have just despatched will have put you in possession of the principal facts in connection with the riots of which Changsha has been the scene during the past week.
It may, I fear, be some time before His Majesty's consul will be in a position to furnish me with a full and reliable report as to the real origin and the chief incidents and characteristics of this violent disturbance, which has resulted in the loss of so much foreign property, but fortunately, I may almost say miraculously, not in the sacrifice of any foreign lives.
Accounts have appeared in the newspapers, and I have received private letters containing what I believe to be authentic details, but I prefer to await the receipt of a full and consecutive account from Mr. Hewlett before attempting to forward a report to you. Meanwhile, I beg to enclose copies of the correspondence which I have exchanged with the Wai-wu Pu, my note of to-day's date embodying practically all the information that I have hitherto received, though some of it may perhaps turn out not to be authentic.
Curiously enough on the evening of the 13th I received a despatch from Mr. Hewlett enclosing a translation of a Chinese letter headed "an honest warning from a certain school,” which had reached him through the post on the 5th April, warning him of impending danger. As he said that he had not communicated this letter to the governor I had already minuted the despatch that he should be instructed to at once bring it to the governor's notice when the telegram announcing the outbreak reached me, but I subsequently ascertained that he had communicated it both to the Taotai and the governor's secretary, and that he received on three separate occasions positive assurances from the governor, the Taotai, and the general that they would be willing and able to afford protection to foreign lives and property under all circumstances.
I
I have had two interviews at the Wai-wu Pu at which I have urged the Chinese Government to take prompt and effective measures to prevent the disorder from spreading, but they appear to be lamentably weak and nervous, and there is no one who possesses sufficient courage and resolution to grapple boldly with the situation. Still, as I said in my telegram No. 81 of to-day's date, it is too soon to judge as to the efficacy of the measures which they are adopting, though I am convinced that, in any case, they will not remove the necessity of the foreign Powers taking such independent steps as they can for the protection of their nationals. A report which is current that two soldiers were beheaded for firing on the rioters who were attacking the governor's yamên may well be true, and, if so, is in itself sufficient to account for the inactivity of the troops of which I complained in
my note. expressed the hope to Liang Tun-yen that no time would be lost in making a searching enquiry into the causes which had led to the riot, and I said that I had little doubt that it was due to speculations in rice on the part of members of the gentry with the connivance of the officials, and that I had more than once of late expressed the opinion that the scarcity of rice in Hunan was largely artificial, His Excellency said that an edict had been issued instructing Jui Cheng, the new Viceroy of Wuchang, and Yang Weng-ting, till lately acting Viceroy of Wuchang, and now sent as acting governor to Changsha, to hold a thorough enquiry irrespective of persons. I pointed out that though Jui Cheng had come from Soochow with an excellent reputation, the same could not be said of Yang Weng-ting, who had, besides, already been concerned with the illegal partial prohibition of export of rice from Changsha, which has formed the subject of incessant representations, both at Hankow and Peking during the past winter, and I suggested that it would carry more weight abroad if the central Government appointed a special commission of enquiry
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