File No. 2648/22–23.
Up to this time the Chinese Government has made no reply to the British
minister’s note and I have asked the foreign office for a reply to my
note to the effect that the regulations will be thoroughly revised and
modified in the light of the objections of the foreign representatives
before being put into effect.
[Inclosure.]
Chargé Fletcher
to the Prince of Ch’ing.
American Legation,
Peking, February 6,
1908.
Your Highness: Accompanying Your Highness’s
note of October 14 last, I had the honor to receive the Revised
Mining Regulations of China in two volumes, which, as stated in the
note, had been jointly submitted to the Throne by Your Higness’s
board and the board of agriculture, industry, and commerce and had
received the imperial sanction.
A translation of those Regulations has been submitted to the
Department of State at Washington and I am now instructed to inform
Your Highness that my Government views the said Regulations with
dissatisfaction. China, by Article VII of the commercial treaty of
October 6, 1903, with the United States, engaged to recast its
mining regulations in such a way as, while promoting the interests
of Chinese subjects and not injuring in any way the sovereign rights
of China, will offer no impediment to the attraction of foreign
capital, nor place foreign capitalists at a greater disadvantage
than they would be under generally accepted foreign regulations.
These regulations are in direct contravention of this treaty
stipulation and would, if put into force, hinder rather than
encourage the development of China’s mineral resources, either by
foreigners or Chinese subjects.
Referring to particular provisions thereof, my Government finds the
articles 49, 60, 61, and 62 are inconsistent with rights which are
guaranteed to citizens of the United States by treaty, and that
articles 5, 10, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 54, and 59 show a tendency
unduly to restrict mining operations.
In view of the general dissatisfaction with which these regulations
have been received, I sincerely trust Your Highness may be pleased
to take the proper measures to prevent their going into effect in
March, 1908, as intended, and that Your Highness will cause them to
be thoroughly revised and modified so that China’s mining
regulations may, when put into effect, conform with existing treaty
stipulations and compare favorably in letter and spirit witn
generally accepted foreign mining regulations.
Hoping to receive a reply in this sense at an early date,
I avail, etc.,
