[Inclosure in No. 553.]
Mr. Denby to the
Foreign Office.
[To be sent before the 26th January in the form of an
official “white” note.]
After consultation with my colleagues I have the honor to present to your
highness and your excellencies the following additional observations
relative to the removal of the Shalu barrier at Canton and the measures
proposed by the Chinese Government to alleviate the injury caused to
foreign commerce by the artificial obstructions erected in the river by
the provincial authorities.
It is one of the principles of international law which during the last
half century has had more than one practical application that, while the
right of a government to take such measures for the defense of its
territory as it may consider necessary even to the detriment of alien
interests may not be questioned, such government is expected, the cause
for the extraordinary measures adopted by it once having disappeared, to
replace matters as they were before the necessity for such measures
arose, and especially to remove immediately any obstructions in the
channels of commerce to free intercourse which may have been erected for
purposes of defense.
This rule applies equally to the state of things in the Canton River.
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Canton has been opened by treaty to foreign trade. Large sums have been
spent there by foreign merchants for the erection of dwelling houses and
godowns, and it is, therefore, only just and equitable that these
obstructions which have been erected in the river of Canton for purposes
of defense should be removed now that the necessity for them has
disappeared.
The proposition of the provincial authorities to station a customs
assistant of the fourth class at Whampoa, which your highness and your
excellencies have seen fit to transmit to me, would have been very well
if it had been put into force for a short time before the removal of the
barrier could have been undertaken, but it can not be thought of as an
equivalent for the losses and delays which of reign shipping has to
suffer in the Canton River in consequence of the non-removal of the
obstructions placed in it.
I can therefore only most earnestly request your highness and your
excellencies to forward to the provincial authorities at Canton with as
little delay as possible the necessary instructions for the removal of
the barrier at Shalu.
If, as it might seem from a passage in the last communication of your
highness and your excellencies to me on this subject, that an erroneous
impression has been produced upon the mind of His Majesty the Emperor on
this subject by an incomplete or one-sided report from the provincial
authorities, I trust that the impression will be removed by your
highness and your excellencies placing before the Emperor not only the
facts of the case as I have had the honor to place them before you, but
also the political consequences which are likely to result in future
from a non-compliance with a generally recognized international rule as
well as from a violation of treaty stipulations by which, with the
express sanction of His Majesty the Emperor, Canton has been opened to
foreign trade and navigation and has to remain so. Your highness and
your excellencies will allow me at the same time to point out to them
that the necessity of appealing to His Majesty the Emperor for
reconsideration of this subject might have been spared to the Tsung-li
Yamêm, if, as it is the case everywhere else, questions having an
international bearing were not decided upon a report from the provincial
authorities alone, without having been first submitted to the Tsung-li
Yamên, to whom the foreign ministers have to look as the representatives
of the Chinese Government in its international relations.
I avail, etc.,
