CO129-428 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 59

......

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office when done with unless required for official use.

CHINA.

POLITICAL

Cypher Telegram to Sir J. Jordan (Peking) Foreign Office, October 29th. 1915.

TO. 228.

Secret.

57

6.30.pen.

In connexion. with events described in your telegram No. 259 (October 19th) a scheme has been propounded to us for requesting the Chinese Government to turn the Germans out of Shanghai and the concessions on the grounds that they are using these places as bases for spreading sedition, stirring up rebellion in India and thereby infringing China's neutrality, In the event of a refusal we should inform the Chinese Government that we intend to do so ourselves, a step which, it is suggested, would be met by them only with a formal protest. Prompt action is considered to be the essence of the scheme and the objects are as follows:-

(1) the effect in China itself both during and

after the war in having cleared the Germans out and

destroyed their trade; (2) the opening it would give to us to obtain the use of Chinese Arsenals, workshops etc. as proposed in my telegram No. 178 Secret (of September 7th, 1915). This is thought to be the natural corollary as if the Chinese Government consented to the scheme they would be driven into an attitude of

benevolent neutrality.

We have pointed out the obvious objections which the Chinese Government are likely to raise and our own particular weakness in having to rely entirely upon the Japanese in case it were necessary to resort to force, but I should be glad of your observations.