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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CO 20647
IREC? Reo 16 SEP 10
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Acting Consul Rose to Mr. Max Müller,
Tengyueh, July 9, 1910. Dear Mr. Max Müller,
BY the same mail which brought the letter from Père Mombeig, reported in my despatch of to-day's date, came a letter from Hertz, the deputy commissioner at Myitkyina, giving me privately the statement of a man who says that the Chinese have visited Kamti; he tells me that the man's report is confirmed by a letter received from the Kamti Sawbwa himself. Hertz has probably notified the Burmah Govern- ment of his news, and the statement of Sao Lwe-hu is as follows:-
"I am related to the Kamti Swabwa, and also to the Myothugyi of Loisaw, in British territory. I was bringing a pony from my home in Kamti for Sao-hu of Kamti in the Myitkyina district, and the Kamti Sawbwa asked me to tell the deputy commissioner what had been taking place in Kamti State.
"During the open season before last, that is, about eighteen months ago, a Chinese official who was carried in a sedan chair and escorted by four or five soldiers in uniform With him were also four and armed with breach-loading rifles came to Kamti. Chinese traders and forty or fifty coolies carrying merchandise. The official claimed to be a high military officer from Yungchan-fu, and the traders said they came from Tali-fu. The head trader's name was Chiu Lao-pan.
"The Chinese official put up in the Sawbwa's house for three or four days and then The four returned to China, taking the soldiers and nearly all the coolies with him. Chinese traders remained behind in Kamti for six or seven months selling their goods, which consisted of Chinese cloth and opium. They took back to China musk, a root known as "khandauk," and ivory, hiring khanungs as porters.
"The Kamti Sawbwa informed the Chinese officer that his State had never been The officer visited by Chinese officials, and asked him what the object of his visit was. replied that he bad heard that Kamti was a rich country, and had therefore come to look at it with a view to opening it up to trade with China. He remarked that the country was very sparsely populated, and that he would bring a large number of Chinese to settle in it next year. The Sawbwa also told him that the State had been visited by British officers several times, and was under British suzerainty, to which the Chinese officer replied that this was the first he had heard of it, and that, nevertheless, he would come again next year.
The Sawbwa
"The next year he did not come, and sent a messenger to say that he was busy punishing the khanungs, who had molested traders, and that he would come the following year. He also sent word that he would make a road to Kamti and build rest-houses along it. The people in Kamti have heard recently from friendly khanungs that the Chinese have now cleared the jungle for some of these houses. requested me to tell the deputy commissioner the above, and also that, if the British Government did not approve of the Chinese annexing the country, it should send its officers to Kamti next year. He also said he was quite powerless to oppose the Chinese, and that if the British Government did not move in the matter he could do nothing."
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[29489]
No. 1.
[August 15.]
SECTION 5.
Sir A. Nicolson to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 15.) (No. 339.) Sir,
St. Petersburgh, August 8, 1910. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 210 of the 29th July last, in which you invite my observations on a despatch received from His Majesty's chargé d'affaires at Peking, on the subject of the proposed acquisition by a British company of certain coal-mining concessions in the province of Kirin.
In view of the scanty information available as to the exact situation of Foong-mi-shan, it is impossible for me to say whether the Russian Government could claim exclusive mining rights there in virtue of their railway agreements with the Chinese Government. I could of course approach the Russian Government with a direct enquiry, but I hesitate to do this, unless the company interested express their approval of such a course.
At the same time I think it well to point out that if the mine is situated within 100 versts of the Russian frontier of the Primorsk province the company would, in their own interest, probably be well advised to make sure of the sympathetic attitude of the Russian Government before embarking on any extensive operations in those regions. In the Primorsk province itself foreigners are not allowed to open mines, or employ foreign workmen without the special permission of the Governor-General.
I have, &c.
A. NICOLSON.
[2862 p--5]
Yours, &c.
ARCHIBALD ROSE.
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