CO129-373 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 57

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As regards the present letter of the consular body, the draft of it has been many times revised and rejected by myself and my German and American colleagues, and it is only on the understanding that each of us would give our own views in forwarding it to our respective ministers that we consented to the letter going forward in its present form.

I have, &c.

PELHAM L. WARREN.

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

CO

56

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[28702]

No. 1.

20647

[August 8.]

Arai SEP 10] SECTION 5.

Enclosure 6 in No. 1.

Minute by Mr. Max Müller.

I AM of opinion that any alteration of the constitution of the mixed court as at present existing is inadvisable.

It appears to me that the more important question of the two raised by the senior foreign interest.' I agree with the cousul is the interpretation to be given to a Dean's interpretation of rule 3 of the Mixed Court Rules of 1869, and consider that the mere fact of a Chinese subject accused of a criminal offence being in the employ of a foreigner does not entitle the foreigner to claim that his interests are involved, nor does it give his consul the right to demand that his assessor should take the case instead of the assessor of the day. The same principle that foreign employment does not necessarily mean a foreign interest is disclosed in rule 2 of the provisional rules for defining the respective jurisdiction of the mixed courts which were agreed to by the consular body and the taotai on the 10th June, 1902, and approved by the diplomatic body on the 28th June, 1902.

In a criminal case in which there is no doubt that a foreign interest is really involved, e.g., where the complainant is himself a foreigner, the assessor of the consulate concerned should be allowed to take his seat on the bench to watch the case, or it- might even be advisable that a special day should be fixed for the hearing, and that In any case it is inadvisable to the said assessor should sit with the magistrate.

displace the assessor of the day.

I gather that some of the consuls desire that in any criminal case in which one of their nationals is indirectly interested, even when both parties are Chinese, the assessor of the consulate concerned is entitled to displace the assessor of the day and take the case. I need hardly point out that this would impede the heavy work of the court, and lead to endless confusion and interference with business.

W. G. MAX MÜLLER,

Peking, April 1, 1910.

0

(No. 333.) Sir,

Sir A. Nicolson to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received August 8.)

St. Petersburgh, August 5, 1910. I HAVE the honour to inform you that the following communiqué appeared in the "Official Messenger" of yesterday :-

"On the 17th (30th) July of this year an agreement with regard to the regula- tions for the navigation of the River Sungari was concluded at Peking between the Russian chargé d'affaires and the Wai-wu Pu. This agreement has now been approved by the Imperial Government, and the chargé d'affaires has been authorised to draw up a new Act, after which the regulations will come into force, replacing the temporary regulations which expired on the 18th (31st) July, 1910. The new regula- tions, in drafting which the technical delegates of the Ministry of Finance and of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company have taken part, fully take into consideration the rights and interests of Russian trade, and at the same time safeguard the lawful rights of China. The fundamental principle of the shipping regulations now to be enforced by mutual consent is the preservation for Russian trade of those privileges on the whole Manchurian frontier which were guaranteed by former treaties, privileges which were not sufficiently recognised in the temporary regulations issued last year by the Chinese authorities. The shipping regulations will be binding for three years."

In commenting on the above, the "Bourse Gazette" gives what purports to be the substance of the new agreement. It says that the Chinese Government recognise that Chinese vessels as well as Russian vessels shall henceforth be liable to shipping dues; that the Chinese Government falls in with the Russian view that only those goods coming from within 50 versts of the Chinese frontier and destined for places within 50 versts of the Russian frontier shall be exempt from duty. Lastly, that a reduction of nearly 30 per cent. has been effected in the duty on grain imported into Harbin, and that a similar reduction of duty is to be granted ou beans and bean husks. The "Novoe Vremya," in a long article, laments that the Russian Government have not seen fit to publish the text of the agreement. It is inclined to believe that the agreement is more favourable to China than to Russia, but it acknowledges that it is some satisfaction that the Chinese Government has abandoned the standpoint that all Russo-Chinese treaties were abrogated by the treaty of Portsmouth. The article concludes by dwelling on the exceptional position in which Russia stands towards China, both geographically and historically. It mentions the attempts which have been made, both in the question of the Harbin settlements and in that of the Chinchow-Aigun Railway, to sow dissension between the two Powers, and says that if the Chinese Government, in spite of all possible incitements, has now come to a sensible point of view, Russia will welcome her decision whole-heartedly.

I have, &c.

A. NICOLSON.

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