Minister Rockhill
to the Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Peking,
China, April 27,
1906.
No. 297.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your instructions No. 114 of March 2 last in reply to my
dispatch No. 200 of
[Page 270]
January
18, and your No. 117 of March 10 in reply to my No. 206 of January 21,
all in reference to the mining regulations which the Chinese Government
is now attempting to frame.
On receipt of your instruction No. 114, I addressed a note to the Prince
of Ch’ing, a copy of which I inclose, in which I embodied the substance
of your instruction.
On the 24th instant the Prince of Ch’ing replied in the inclosed note,
saying that the experimental regulations, of which I have had to
complain, will very shortly be withdrawn, as the compilation of the
general mining regulations has now been completed by the Viceroy Chang
Chih-tung, who had been intrusted with this work, and is at present
being gone over by the Wai-wu Pu before submitting them to the Throne
for approval.
Although not so stated in the note, I take it to imply that the
objections which the United States has made to the experimental mining
regulations will be met in these general mining regulations.
I shall await the publication of the regulations, and if they do not
“remove all discrimination against foreign miners and secure their
peaceful and practical working of their property” I will, in conjunction
with my colleagues interested in the question, or alone if I can not
secure further action on their part, urge on the Chinese Government
strict compliance with the terms of Article VII of its treaty with us of
October 8, 1903.
I have the honor, etc.,
[Inclosure 1.]
Mr. Rockhill to
the Prince of Ch’ing.
Your Imperial Highness: Referring to
Article VII of the recent regulations which provide for the
establishment of provincial bureaus of mining inspection, I had the
honor on the 23d of December last to call the attention of your
imperial highness to the conflict between the provisions of said
article and those of the commercial treaty between the United States
and China. On January 10 your highness replied quoting a dispatch
from the board of commerce in which it was argued that, if my
interpretation were correct, there would also be conflict between
these new regulations and the provisions of the general mining
regulations, and that my interpretation must therefore be wrong. On
the 30th of January I had the honor to communicate with your
highness again, expressing my dissatisfaction with the argument of
the board of commerce, and asking that the article be amended so
that there could be no doubt as to its meaning. To this dispatch I
have received no reply whatever.
I now have the honor to say that I am in receipt of instructions from
my Government directing me to inform Your Imperial Highness that the
American Government can not consider the statement of the board of
commerce as sufficient to prevent misunderstanding and friction,
since this interpretation of Article VII is hidden away in the
correspondence between the board of commerce and the Wai-wu Pu,
where it will be inaccessible to most of the officials of the Empire
and consequently unknown to them. My Government believes it to be
necessary either that a public announcement should be made to the
officials and people generally that Article VII of the new
regulations does not forbid the sale of mineral lands to foreigners,
or, better still, that the article be amended so that there may be
no misunderstanding of its meaning, and that all may know that it
does not apply to the sale of mineral lands to foreigners.
I have the honor, therefore, to request once more that Your Imperial
Highness will direct such action to be taken without delay as will
remove all appearance of conflict between the provisions of the
article in question and those of the treaty of 1903.
I avail, myself, etc.,
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[Inclosure 2.]
The Prince of Ch’ing
to Mr. Rockhill.
Foreign Office, April 24, 1906.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s dispatch of the 17th
instant referring to Article VII of the recent regulations providing
for the establishment of provincial bureaus of mining inspection.
Your excellency pointed out that there was a conflict between the
provisions of this article and those of the commercial treaty
between the United States and China; that you had already called my
attention in a previous dispatch and received a reply in which was
quoted the argument put forward by the board of commerce on the
subject, which was to the effect that your interpretation of the
matter was wrong; that you had after this communicated with me again
expressing dissatisfaction with the argument of the board of
commerce and asking that the article be amended so that there could
be no doubt as to its meaning, but to this, last you had received no
reply up to that time. Your excellency then informed me that you had
received instructions from your Government directing you to inform
me that the American Government could not consider the statement of
the board of commerce as sufficient to prevent misunderstanding and
friction, since the proper interpretation of Article VII was hidden
away in the correspondence between the board of commerce and the
Wai-wu-Pu, where it would be inaccessible to most of the officials
of the Empire, and hence unknown to them, wherefore your Government
believed it to be necessary either to make a public announcement to
the officials and people generally that Article VII of the new
regulations does not forbid the sale of mineral land to foreigners,
or, better still, that the article be amended so that there might be
no misunderstanding of its meaning, and all might know that it does
not apply to the sale of mineral lands to foreigners. It became your
excellency’s duty in the matter to request that such action be taken
without delay as would remove all appearance of conflict between the
provisions of the article in question and those of the treaty of
1903.
In reply to this communication I have to state that regulations
providing for the establishment of provincial bureaus of inspection
were drawn up by the board of commerce because the general mining
regulations were still unpublished, and that these regulations were
for temporary and experimental use only. Now, however, His
Excellency Chang Chih-tung, the viceroy of Hu-Kuang, has completed
the compilation of the general mining regulations, and has sent them
to my board; and as soon as we have carefully gone over them with
the ministers of the board of commerce we will memorialize the
Throne, and, if approved, then all mining affairs of any kind will
be dealt with according to the new regulations.
It becomes my duty, however, having received your excellency’s
dispatch quoted above, to send this reply for your information, and
I trust that you will transmit the contents of this communication to
the Department of State.
A necessary dispatch.
[seal.]
