Sir J. Walsham to Earl Granville.-(Received September 3)

(No. 255 Confidential)
Berlin, September 1, 1883

My Lord,

ON the receipt of your Lordship’s No. 307 of the 23th ultimo, I did not fail to communicate at once to the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs a Memorandum containing the views of Her Majesty’s Government as to the steps now to be taken with regard to the negotiations for amending the Treaties concluded last year on behalf of Great Britain and Germany with Corea, and I furnished his Excellency, confidentially, with a copy of Sir H.S. Parkes’ draft Treaty, expressing at the same time the hope that, as the matter was pressing, the German Government would be so good as to let Her Majesty’s Government know, as early as they conveniently could do so, whether they agreed with the views expressed in the Memorandum.
On delivering the Memorandum personally to Dr. Busch, and giving him a brief statement of its contents, his Excellency said that the German Government would not in any case send to Corea a Special Representative of the same category as Sir H.S. Parkes, but would probably appoint an official conversant with the subject to act with Sir H.S. Parkes, and he promised to take into immediate consideration the provisions of the draft Treaty. Today Dr. Busch informed me that Herr Zappe, German Consul-General in Japan, had been appointed to act with Sir H.S. Parkes; that he had already started, and that, although owing to the question of urgency, and from a desire to meet the wishes of Her Majesty’s Government, there had not been time to submit the provisions of the Treaty to a detailed examination, the German Government agreed in principle with the basis laid down for a renewal of the negotiations.

I have, &c.
(Signed) JOHN WALSHAM.M