[Inclosure in No. 555.]
Mr. Denby to the
Foreign Office.
January 25,
1888.
No. 4.]
Your Highness and Your
Excellencies:
In 1869 the then British consul at Taiwan Fu concluded with the local
authorities an arrangement by which the camphor trade, until then a
monopoly of the Chinese Government, was thrown open to merchants in
general. This agreement was accepted by the Chinese Government and
communicated by the Tsung-li Yamên, with the rules and regulations
thereto, to the foreign legations.
Until 1886 this arrangement had worked satisfactorily to all parties
concerned, when in this year it was withdrawn by order of his excellency
the new governor of Formosa. Without authorization, or even instructions
from the Chinese Government or the foreign legations, both parties to
the agreement in force, even without previous information to the foreign
merchants, to the foreign consuls, yea, even to the Chinese local
authorities, the rules in force for nearly twenty years were abolished
and the government monopoly, or more properly speaking, the monopoly of
the provincial exchequer, re-established. Camphor transported from the
interior to Taiwan Fu under transit passes was seized and confiscated
and the protests and reclamations of the owners as well as of the
consuls left unnoticed. The Tsung-li Yamên, on being appealed to,
declared without hesitation that the arrangement in question, concluded
in 1869, having obtained the sanction of the imperial government could
not be set aside by the provincial authorities, and that these latter
would be called upon to explain their action. There the matter has
rested ever since it was first brought to the knowledge of the Tsung-li
Yamên, and the provincial authorities without minding in the least the
instructions they may have received from the Tsung-li Yamên, simply
continue to ignore the former international arrangement and to act upon
their own judgment.
This way of proceeding on the part of the provincial authorities throws a
very clear but very unsatisfactory light upon the relations existing on
one side between the foreign representatives and the Tsung-li Yamên, on
the other between that body and the provincial authorities. Everywhere
else the minister of foreign affairs is the representative of his
government in its relations with foreign powers; he takes the orders of
his sovereign or chief magistrate of his country for the transaction of
international business, and his decisions and declarations on such
questions engage and bind his government. Here in Peking the situation
is utterly changed. The Tsung-li Yamên seems to have no power with
regard to the provincial authorities, or at least not to be willing to
exercise it. Its decisions are simply ignored by the provincial
authorities, and its functions seem to consist principally in
transmitting complaints from the foreign legations to the local
authorities and vice versa, in the latter case
very often in a form which goes far to prove that no supervision or
discretion has been exercised by the Yamên even in this office of
intermediary.
If for once the Yamên should come to a decision on a point, its orders
are generally put aside entirely or partly by the provincial
authorities, and worse even, questions of the greatest national
importance are settled over the head of the Yamên by a direct reference
of the provincial authorities to the throne.
Your highness and your excellencies will easily understand that such a
state of things must be fraught with difficulties and dangers to the
international relations of China. It has been at the express demand of
the Chinese Government and with the express understanding that the
Chinese Government was willing and in a position to assume the duties
and responsibilities of a central government, that the foreign powers
have consented to do away with the direct applications for redress that
used to be addressed formerly to provincial and local authorities. But
the assurances given by the Chinese Government have been left in many
respects unfulfilled, and out of the indefinite performance of these
duties has grown delay in the dispatch of public business between the
Yamên and the legations.
It is with great diffidence that I have ventured to speak thus frankly to
your highness and your excellencies, but I can not disguise the fact
that serious difficulties, if not dangers, may arise from the position
actually occupied by the Tsung-li Yamên. The way in which I have had the
honor to lay the state of things as understood and judged by me before
your highness and your excellencies, will enable you, if necessary, to
obtain by representation to the throne greater power or another
constitution, if either in your opinion shall be necessary, to allow the
Yamên to act the part of a foreign office such as it is generally
understood and necessary for the maintenance of international
relations.
But while leaving the decision of this question to the wisdom of your
highness and your excellencies, I have the honor to request you to issue
without delay to the provincial authorities of Formosa the necessary
instructions to abolish immediately the
[Page 254]
provincial monopoly on camphor illegally
re-established by them, and to revert to the execution of the
arrangement of 1869 as agreed upon between the Tsung-li Yamên and the
foreign legations.
I avail, etc.,
