Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part II
Mr. Burlingame to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to send you the correspondence from our consul at Ningpo, enclosed, marked A, B, C, D, and E.
From this it appears that the French consul, Mr. Edan, undertook to secure a concession of a portion of the city of Ningpo to the French government, and that Mr. Mangum, the American consul, opposed that attempt, and referred the correspondence to me at Peking. I immediately, in an interview with the Chinese authorities here, supported our consul, not only because Mr. Edan’s attempt was in violation of the arrangement made on the 13th of January, (see minutes,) but on the broad ground that any concession of territory would be an abridgment of our treaty rights; that it was our right to buy and sell and live in any part of any treaty port; and that any such concession would infringe that right, and if they might concede a part they might the whole, and I warned them that such concessions, if made, would not only destroy our treaty rights, but that they would be the beginning of a disruption of the empire. They informed me that they had not granted any concessions, nor would they, and thanked me for taking a position so in accordance with their rights. I never failed in my interviews to keep the non-concession doctrine before them, because I had been made aware in Shanghai, by conversations with the British consul, that he and the British residents supposed they had a quasi territorial concession at Shanghai over which they could maintain jurisdiction not only over British subjects, but over Chinese. This assumption led the French to make like claims, and the result was that there was a race, apparently, between the British and French local authorities as to which could secure the most. I brought the question, in many conversations, to the attention of the British and Russian ministers, and, since his arrival, to the French minister. I am happy to say that I found my views accorded with theirs, and that we are now, on this most important [Page 928] question, in perfect agreement; and this agreement is a guarantee of the territorial integrity of the Chinese empire.
As an earnest of the sincerity of Sir Frederick Bruce on this subject, I send you copies of letters and extracts, from letters marked F, addressed by him to her Majesty’s consul at Shanghai. From these it will be seen that Sir Frederick Bruce takes the non-concession ground most strongly.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
A.
Mr. Mangum to Mr. Burlingame
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you copies of the correspondence between Monsieur P. Edan, consul of France at Shanghai, and myself, in regard to the matter of “concession” on the Keang Pilo site; also a communication from Monsieur Edan to the Taoutai of Ningpo, demanding a separate French concession, the limits of which are therein stated.
At the conference held by the three treaty powers at this port on the 13th of January last, when it was determined to take joint possession of the Keang Pilo site, “for defensive purposes” it was understood, we think distinctly, that all necessary measures for the protection and prosperity of the settlement should be the joint efforts of the three treaty consuls residing here, and that no other arrangement should be entered into until the course we had deemed necessary to adopt should be decided upon by our respective ministers at Peking. This arrangement was again approved of at the second conference held by the said treaty consuls on the 31st of May last, after the expulsion of the rebels from Ningpo. Monsieur Edan’s demand upon the Taoutai for a separate French concession embraces perhaps the most valuable and important portion of the Keang Pilo settlement, and includes the greater portion of the property belonging to Americans settled here—property owned principally by American missionaries who were the first foreigners to settle on this side of the river. A sense of duty compels me to oppose this demand, and I lay the matter before your excellency, that, in conjunction with the representatives of the three treaty powers, some satisfactory adjustment may be determined upon. I have, &c.,
His Excellency Anson Burlingame, United States Minister, Peking, China.
B.
Mr. Mangum to Monsieur Edan
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 18th instant, enclosing a copy of the communication addressed by you to [Page 929] his excellency the Taoutai of Ningpo, demanding a separate French concession in the Kiang Pilo settlement, which I found awaiting my return from the country where I have been absent for several days in consequence of ill health.
I reciprocate heartily the regret you expressed at not being able to meet and talk with you upon the subject in question, involving the interests of so many parties, and frankly confess that a sense of duty compels me to refuse my assent to the step you have taken as being in direct contravention to the understanding among the three treaty powers at the conference held on the 13th of January last, and ratified at the conference held on the 31st of May last, to wit: that this matter should be referred to our representatives at the court of Peking, and we abide by their decision—it not being supposed at the time to be in the power of either of the consuls to make a demand for a separate concession. Again, the portion you have demanded for a separate French concession embraces the oldest settled and most valuable part of the foreign settlement, including the greater part of the property belonging to the American missionaries, who established the first foreign mission on the Kiang Pilo site. This fact, I presume, you may not be aware of, and I trust that you will at once see the injustice of transfering such large and valuable interests beyond the jurisdiction of their representatives at this port.
In fact, sir, when we take into consideration the situation of the property belonging to foreigners here, mixed together in all conceivable ways, I do not see how separate concessions can be made in the Keang Pilo settlement without great injustice to the citizens of at least two of the treaty powers.
Copies of your communication and this reply I will transmit by the earliest opportunity to the United States minister at the imperial court of Peking, where, by consultation with the representatives of France and England, some satisfactory settlement may be arrived at.
With sincere wishes for your health and happiness, I have, &c.,
Monsieur B. Edan, Consul de France, Shanghai.
C.
Minute of a conference held at the United States consulate at Ningpo, Chusan, this morning, the 13th day of January, 1862. President, Captain I. Corbett, her Majesty’s royal naval steamer Scout; President, Willie P. Mangum, United States consul at Ningpo; President, Frederick Harvey, her Majesty’s consul at Ningpo.
Whereas certain forces in opposition to the government of China have captured the city of Ningpo and its surrounding districts; and whereas, in the absence of any imperial authority, it is necessary for defensive purposes, for the protection of life and property, and for the general security, order, and good government of foreigners residing in Ningpo, that certain limits should be clearly defined, within which those foreigners are to reside, free from molestation, aggression, and interference of any kind: For these purposes, the undersigned, as the only representatives of foreign powers at this port, have this day met together at the United States consulate, and have, after consultation, agreed and determined upon the following articles, viz:
1st. That that tract of land, or country, or promontory, known as the Keang Pilo site, and comprised within the boundaries or limits drawn by the Yung river, the Yu Yaon river, the Ken Po Foo creek, and a line drawn across the fields from the Sze-Ken-Merrin, (or temple,) to join the Yu Yaon river above [Page 930] mentioned, (the whole site forming an irregular quadrangle or trapeze,) shall, from this date and hereafter, be opened and considered as the foreign site, within which such foreigners shall reside, free from any interference of any nature whatever, always subject to their respective treaty obligations.
2d. The undersigned reserved to themselves to make and establish such rules and regulations within the limits above mentioned as the future necessities of the settlement may render necessary, such regulations to be in conformity with the provisions of the respective treaties with the imperial government of China.
3d. The above agreement, to which the undersigned have appended their approval and signature, will be submitted without delay to the high ministers and officers of the nations to which the undersigned, respectively, pertain and belong.
D.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I have addressed, yesterday, to his excellency the Taoutai Tchang an official demand for the purpose of obtaining the concession of a piece of land, to be appropriated to the residence of my countrymen, upon that part of the campo where there is already a chapel and cemetery.
I add here the copy of my despatch to that functionary, for your personal edification, upon a subject which interests both of us. How much I regret, sir, that your absence from Ningpo, at the moment when I arrived there, had not permitted me to converse with you in advance of the subject which led me there. I should have liked to enter into communication of ideas with you upon the solution, to give to the question, for a long time in sufferance, of the strange concession in his part, to convince you that the conference of January 13, like that of May 21, are equally favorable to the determination that I have taken.
The consul of England, to whom I have imparted equally my despatch to the Taoutai, does not partake of my manner of seeing, and has declared for a joint concession in preference to a division between three. Without speaking to you of the inconveniences that I find in this unity of governments, of which the most immediate is that of translating itself into a single and unique influence which absorbs the other two, I limit myself to tell you that I have transmitted all my correspondence relative to this affair to the legation of France at Peking, so that a definite understanding between the three ministers may put at last an end to the provisional rule which destroys the future of the campo.
I do not know, sir, and dear colleague, if my proceeding will find a support or an adversary in you, but I am sure beforehand of this, that it will be received by you with benevolence and courtesy. Whatever may happen, you will render it this justice in default of all other, that at least it has the inappreciable advantage of (giving motion to) life, in calling out the community of Ningpo from a state of uncertainty prejudicial to all interests.
I have. &c.,
E.
B. Edan, French consul at Shanghai and Ningpo, addresses the present necessary official communication to his excellency Tchang Taoutai, of Ningpo:
Honorable Taoutai: The treaty concluded the 7th day of the month of June, 1858, (7th day, 5th moon, of the 8th year of Heinfung,) between the great empire of France and the great empire of China, contains in its article 10 a stipulation entirely identical with the 22d article of the first treaty between our two nations, in date of 9th day of the 9th moon of the 24th year, Taokwang.
This agreement between the two treaties proves how much the two commissioners who have written them have judged this clause necessary, as much to assure to their countrymen a special place of habitation, sheltered from all possible controversy, as to guarantee them from an absorption without that inevitable, in the midst of foreign competitors much more numerous, and disposing of a more considerable capital. Here is the tenor of article 10, of which this is the point (follows the text entire of the article cited.)
Without speaking of concessions obtained by other empires upon a vast scale at Canton, at Shanghai, Hankow, Tchen Kiangfoo, &c., it suffices to say that the French, until now, have not made use of the right of concession, and as yet in very modest proportions, only at Canton, Tientzin, and Shanghai. Now, (in consequence) of efforts and sacrifices which the government of his Majesty the Emperor has made to bring back peace and commerce into the country submitted to your administration, the French interests have taken in the port of Ningpo a (development) which exacts in this locality a new application of article 10, before cited, of which the small importance of those interests had not until then made them feel the need.
The Campo has been declared recently, by official act of three consuls of France, England, and America, foreign concession. It is to this title that Mr. Obry, one of the officers of the imperial navy who have commanded in this port, has cause to disappear the (pavilions) planted by the rebels, and chased those of the bandits who pretended to show themselves there freely. It is, then, on this land, assigned without controversy on your part for the dwelling of foreigners, that it is expedient that a place may be fixed for the French concession, and to this effect, that no one may be ignorant of it, I pray his excellency to make known by a public proclamation that, in virtue of his powers, and conformably to the treaties of France with China, it has determined that the limits of the quarter designed for the residence of the French shall be those hereafter to be known: at the east, the river which leads to Tchenpai; at the south and west, the river which leads to Yu Yao; at the north, a line drawn from the pavilion of the green-house to the pavilion of a pagoda called Yangshen Tsonye, and serving for the preparation of tea; this line, prolonged to the river of Yu Yao, goes to meet the land of a Chinese called Sic. I pray you, moreover, honorable Taoutai, to have the goodness to announce in this notification: first, that in the case where indigenous proprietors should refuse to sell to the French in the limits defined above, or exact any prices which are not conformable to the Chinese prices current, you will intervene to endeavor to make the people obey the prescriptions of the article of the treaty above; and, second, that as for the subjects of other empires who would wish to make a settlement in the quarters which are now in question, they should have to explain themselves to this effect with the consul of the nation which this proclamation concerns. By that a proof will be given to foreigners that the French authorities, in claiming a concession of ground for their countrymen, have not [Page 932] had in view to hinder respectable interests from establishing themselves by the side of them, but that they have wished only to make a reservation in favor of interests which they have for a special duty to protect.
It is for this end that I have the honor to address to you the present despatch, which is so much the more worthy of your attention as it is a direct appeal to your fidelity to the treaties and to the sentiments which ought to preside over our mutual relations.
F.
Sir: With reference to your letter on the proposals made for the management of Shanghai, I have to observe that there is great misapprehension of the position of these so-called foreigners’ concessions. The British concession at Shanghai was neither a transfer nor a lease of the land in question to the British crown; it was simply an agreement that British subjects should be allowed to acquire land for their personal accommodation within a certain space, in order that they might have the advantage of living together. The land so acquired remains Chinese territory; it is subject to the land tax; and if the jurisdiction of the Chinese government over it is desired, it is denied, because in China it was deemed essential for the security of British trade that the person and establishment of the trader should be secured from molestation. But the character of the concession has been entirely altered by the acts of foreigners themselves. Instead of being a foreign settlement, it has become a Chinese city, in which a few foreigners reside, amidst a large Chinese population. The security and comfort which were supposed to be derived from isolating the foreign community have been sacrificed, and land has been acquired, not for the legitimate purpose of accommodating foreigners, but in order to build on it Chinese houses, which are tenanted by Chinese at high rents, attracted by the protection our bayonets afford, and by immunity from their natural authorities. This system to be proposed to extend as far as it may suit the interest or convenience of parties on the spot, and it appears that the Chinese population so collected is to be exterritorialized, as well as the land they occupy.
The Chinese governor is to be deprived of his power of dealing with them; they are to be taxed for municipal purposes, and his interference is to be limited to judgment and punishing them in cases which the foreign head of the nation, to which the owner of the property occupied belongs, permits to be brought before his tribunal. The consummation of this system is to be the erection of Shanghai into a free port, with a mixed consular and municipal government, under the joint protectorate of the treaty powers. It is my duty to remind you that the Chinese government has never formally abandoned its rights over its own subjects; nor has her Majesty’s government ever claimed or expressed any desire to exercise a protectorate over them.
The only case in which, consistently with the principles laid down for the guidance of her Majesty’s authority in this country, the consul has a right to interfere, is where the Chinese is in the employ of a British firm, and where there is reason for believing that the arrest of a Chinese servant is an outrage, through him, on his employer. But it is the interests of the British subject, and not the Chinaman, which are protected.
I don’t understand what interest her Majesty’s government has in lending itself to a system which is unjustifiable in principle, which would be attended with endless embarrassment and responsibility, and which the Chinese government would never submit to willingly. Great Britain has no interest except in providing a secure place for British trading establishments; and whatever [Page 933] inconveniences may arise from the conversion of the settlement into a Chinese town, I do not think her Majesty’s government will be induced to seek a remedy for them by extending its jurisdiction over a larger section of the Chinese population. Because we protect Shanghai from falling a prey to a horde of brigands, it does not follow that we are prepared to interfere with the natural relation of the Chinese to their own government. I must impress upon you most strongly the importance of not lending yourself to any proposal which will lead, however indirectly, to such serious alterations in our position in China, as are evidently contemplated by some of the residents at Shanghai. I am convinced that her Majesty’s government would wish to see the limits of the so-called concession reduced, so as to exclude the Chinese, rather than extended, so as to embrace a greater number of them. Our interests in China are trade and pacific relations with the authorities; and I know no more fertile sources of misunderstanding than the collection of Chinese within our limits. This is not a question which affects Shanghai alone; it affects our relations with the whole Chinese empire; and, considering the effect of our example, it is of the utmost importance that we should take no step which cannot be defended upon sound international principle.
I request you to reconsider the laws and regulations with reference to the principles laid down in this despatch.
[Untitled]
I wish you to understand, that by treaty we have no right to interfere between the Chinese people and their authorities; that the words “sanctity of the British concession” have no meaning, and that we have no power to compel the Chinese, who live within the so-termed concession, to pay any tax for local purposes, except through and with the consent of their own authorities. I am inclined to think that the whole system at Shanghai is a mistake; that the police arrangements of the Chinese within the lines would be more efficiently and more economically done through themselves than it is done by Europeans, and that our management is both extravagant and oppressive. I beg you also to remember that what is done in a military point of view is for the defence of the settlement, and that her Majesty’s government has a right to expect that any charges for that purpose will take the precedence of local improvements, which, under the circumstances, might be desirable. If the Chinese are taxed for local purposes to the utmost, it only proves, as I said above, that the system is a bad one. If the assistance given to Shanghai entitles us to a voice in the matter of taxes, no distinction ought to be made between the people in the settlement and those in the city. There ought to be no difference made in favor of the settlement. In fact the accumulation of Chinese there is a great misfortune, and would make neutrality impossible should the government wish to leave Shanghai to take its chance. It is a great source of danger and insecurity of our interests, and by ignoring the jurisdiction of the Chinese government over the inhabitants, we release from any claim under the treaty in case of incendiary fines, &c. That is a point not sufficiently borne in mind by the community.
[Untitled]
Sir: In reply to your despatch (No. 148) requesting my advice as to the proposals made by the Taoutai for the taxation of Chinese subjects within the limits of the so-called British concession, I have to observe that there is nothing [Page 934] in the treaties which warrants me in interfering, in any way, in such questions. The Taoutai is entitled to levy taxes as he pleases, and as long as he merely seeks to impose taxes on persons resident in the concession, which are paid by those living in the city and suburbs, I see no reason for objecting to it at a time when it is our interest, as well as that of the Chinese, that the government should not be deprived of its resources.
A heavy responsibility will rest on the consul of any port should his actions in such matters lead to the disbanding or mutiny of the highly-paid force under foreign officers, which the Chinese have imbodied by our advice.
I am, &c.,