[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.'
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[11831]
[March 31.]
CO
10371
No. 1.
SECTION 3.
}
Sir,
India Office to Foreign Office.--(Received March 31.)
India Office, March 30, 1911. WITH reference to correspondence ending with your letter dated the 25th March, 1911, as to the undemarcated section of the Burmah-Yunnan frontier north of latitude 25° 35', I am directed to enclose copy of telegraphic correspondence with the Government of India on the subject. Copy of papers relating to Mr. Hertz's expedition to the frontier, which have been received by mail from the Government of India, is also enclosed for your information.*
Viscount Morley is satisfied, on a consideration of the Burmah Government's reports, that the Chinese claim to all villages on the west of the Irrawaddy-Salween watershed, other than the Hpimaw, Kangfang, and Gawlam groups, are wholly inadmissible.
He would accordingly suggest, for Sir E. Grey's consideration, that the Chinese Government should be informed, in reply to their note of the 11th March, reported in Sir J. Jordan's telegram No. 73, dated the 13th March, 1911, that there can be no question of our accepting the line of the Kaoliang Kung range proposed by them. There is some room for doubt as to what range the Chinese Government intend to indicate by the above name; but it seems certain that the interpretation given in the Viceroy's telegram of the 27th March, viz., that the range forming the watershed between the Chipwi and Kansheng (or Hpare) Rivers is meant, is correct. In other words, the effect of the Chinese proposal is practically to renew the offer of the line proposed by Taotai Shih in 1905, a line which would assign to China territory over which she has never exercised any shadow of authority; such authority, so far as there is any trace of it, being limited to the three groups of villages mentioned above. As regards the proposal "to appoint special officers to investigate and decide on a basis for a frontier," the experience of 1905, when such a joint commission failed to arrive at any agreement, shows that, unless at least the basis is settled between the two Goveruments beforehand, no practical result is likely to be attained by subordinate officers on the spot. The appointment, therefore, of a joint delimitation commission could only be agreed to if preceded by a clear understanding as to what this basis should be.
As regards the line to be adopted as the basis of the frontier, Viscount Morley adheres to the views expressed in my letter of the 23rd February, 1911. The Chinese Government might, he thinks, be informed that the investigations of Mr. Hertz, who has been deputed by His Majesty's Government to visit and administer the country up to the watershed, have confirmed the view consistently urged in our communications with the Wai-wu Pu, that the watershed line not only affords the most suitable frontier on geographical and administrative grounds, but is in fact the only line offering any hope of a final settlement. In these circumstances, His Majesty's Government must press for its acceptance as the general basis of the frontier, subject to the understanding that any claims which China may be able to substantiate west of the line in question will be dealt with in an equitable spirit.
Sir J. Jordan might be instructed at the same time to renew formally the offer made in 1906 to compensate China by a money payment for the extinction of the personal claims of the Tengkung Chief west of the watershed; but he might be authorised, in the event of the Chinese Government again declining to accept an arrangement on these lines, to admit the Chinese claims to the Hpimaw, Kangfang, and Gawlam groups of villages, as suggested by the Burmah Government, on the under- standing that China is prepared to lease the territory in question to His Majesty's Government.
Lord Morley is not prepared at present to consider the question of offering an alternative line, and he is of opinion that, if the above terms are put to the Chinese Government with sufficient firmuess, it will not be necessary to do so; but he would
* Not printed.
[1918 hh--3]
B
268
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