This Document is the Property of His Brinaria Majeno)
103
Goverment.]
со
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[10114]
(No. 85.) Sir,
No. 1.
13346
[March 20.1
विज 20-
SECTION 4.
Sir J, Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 20.)
Peking, February 24, 1911. ON the 14th instant you were good enough to instruct me by telegram to open negotiations with the Chinese Government with a view to arriving at a general agreement for determining the line of frontier where it has not yet been delimited on the borders of Burmah and Yünnan, from 25° 35′ to its northern extremity.
I accordingly called by appointment on the grand councillor, Na Tung, on the 18th instant, and after mentioning the case of Li San-kuei, which forms the subject of my immediately preceding despatch, I went on to say that this incident was typical of the continual friction occurring owing to the absence of a definite boundary line. There was only one possible line, and that was the natural boundary formed by the Irrawaddy-Salween divide. The Chinese proposal for the Hsiao-Chiang line was unacceptable, not only because it included territory never administered by China, but because it was only a small stream, and the villages in many cases owned property on both banks. The whole question had been carefully gone into by Mr. Litton and Taotai Shih in 1905, but the only action taken by the Chinese Government on this had been to degrade Shib. His Majesty's Government had therefore been driven to send an expedition to Pien-ma and administer the country up to the watershed. They were however now, as at all times, prepared to examine any Chinese claims to dues from particular villages west of the divide, with a view to compensation by exchange of territories or otherwise.
His Excelleney replied that the dispatch of British troops to Pien-ma and the neighbourhood had aroused great excitement and feeling among the populace in Yunnan, and the Viceroy had continually urged the board to secure their withdrawal. The Chinese Government were quite willing to negotiate for a joint delimitation of the frontier, but the troops ought to be first withdrawn.
I pointed out that to attempt delimitation without first agreeing on a basis for the frontier was merely waste of time. If the Chinese Government would agree to a basis for the frontier on the understanding that Chinese claims to dues from land included would be subject to examination and, if necessary, to compensation, I should be willing to move His Majesty's Government to withdraw the expeditionary force before the actual delimitation began.
On Na Tung objecting that China would have the appearance of being forced into accepting a frontier, I reminded his Excellency of the Wai-wn Pu's note of the 14th January, in which they had expressed their willingness to agree to a basis before delimitation. If China would accept the principle of the watershed up to its northern extremity all possibility of future friction would be removed. Demarcation could follow under the conditions I had mentioned, and there could then be no suggestion that China was acting under compulsion.
The grand councillor again urged that the troops should retire, but I said that such a step could not possibly be considered until a basis for the frontier had been accepted, and I added that it was unfortunate that the board's knowledge of the geography of those parts was imperfect, and that they disregarded the reports of the men on the spot in favour of ancient documents, which had no more meaning at the present day than had formerly the title of "King of France" so long retained by the Kings of England. The arguments in support of the watershed frontier were convincingly set forth in Mr. Litton's despatch to Taotai Shih of the 20th May, 1905, which I commended to his Excellency's attention.
Na Tung finally said that he would consider the proposal and return an auswer in due course.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
May
5
[1918 u~4]
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