Sir H.S. Parkes to Earl Granville. (Received February 1, 1884)

(No. 43)
Tien-tsin, December 7, 1883

My Lord,

I ARRIVED here from Chefoo in the afternoon of the 4th instant, and was immediately visited by an officer of the staff of the Grand Secretary Li Hung-chang, who informed me that his Excellency desired to see me as soon as convenient.
I therefore called on his Excellency the next day. I found that he was anxious to know what I had done in Corea, and I thought it would be polite to be frank with him on the subject, and to give him a full recital. This led, as I anticipated, to a request that I would show him the Treaty, and I observed that, although I should be transgressing rules in doing so, I would communicate it to him in strict confidence, which I felt assured would not be misused.
I adopted this course because I perceived that if I had refused to show his Excellency the Treaty I should have given him offence, and have awakened distrust on his part, and possibly opposition also, without any corresponding gain, as the text of the Treaty would probably soon be communicated to him by the Agent of the Chinese Government in Corea. And, on the other hand, I considered that if his Excellency approved the Treaty, I should derive some advantage from that circumstance.
His Excellency observed to me that the French Minister had told him, shortly after I left for Corea, that my negotiations would create a false position for China in respect to that country, but that he had replied that he did not apprehend any result of that nature. I replied that when his Excellency read the Treaty he would see that his confidence had been fully justified.
I accordingly gave his Excellency a copy of the Treaty and Trade Regulations when he returned my visit on the following day. His Excellency read these documents through from beginning to end, and then spontaneously expressed a hearty approval of them. There was nothing in them, he said, which concerned China in the least degree, and he would adopt the Tariff in the case of Chinese subjects. I profited by the opportunity to inquire whether the Chinese Government contemplated giving up the right of their subjects to trade in Hanyang (or Söul), which forms the subject of the second Declaration in the Protocol attached to the Treaty, and his Excellency replied that they entertained no such intention.
Mr. Hillier has prepared a careful Memorandum of the conversation which passed at both these interviews, and I inclose a copy, as I think it of sufficient importance to merit your Lordship’s notice. Your Lordship will observe that the Grand Secretary pointedly inquired how Great Britain would be diplomatically represented in Corea, and urged that Her Majesty’s Minister in Peking should be intrusted with that representation. I have reasons for concurring in his Excellency’s views, which I shall submit to your Lordship in another despatch.
His Excellency also asserted that the Russian frontier was not conterminous to that of Corea at the embouchure of the T'umên River, but as far as I am aware this view is not shared either by the Russian Government or that of Corea, nor does it seem to be borne out by the terms of the Ist Article of the Treaty between Russia and China of the 2nd (14th) November, 1860, although those terms are somewhat dubiously worded. His Excellency, however, insisted that the Map which was attached to that Treaty left this question beyond doubt; but he at the same time observed that it was to be made the subject of a joint Commission of Inquiry on the part of Russia and China.

I have, &c.
(Signed) HARRY S. PARKES

Inclosure

Memorandum of Interview with the Grand Secretary Li.

SIR H.S. Parkes, accompanied by Mr. Hillier, called on the Grand Secretary Li by the invitation of his Excellency, who had sent an officer to wait on Sir H.S. Parkes on his arrival at Tien-tsin the previous afternoon, and to beg him to favour the Viceroy with an early call.
The conversation was first directed to Sir H.S. Parkes’ recent visit to Corea, the Grand Secretary asking many questions as to the nature of the Treaty, the alterations in the Tariff arranged with the Japanese, the ability of the Corean officials to comprehend the principles of foreign intercourse, and the position and attitude of M. von Möllendorff, the foreign adviser to the Corean Government. His Excellency said that he had been blamed by the Tsung-li Yamên for having neglected to send a Chinese official over with Sir H.S. Parkes, and described a conversation he had with M. Tricou, in which the French Minister had predicted that the arrangements which the British and German Representatives would make in Corea would place China in a false position as regarded her tributary, but to which he had replied that he could trust Sir H.S. Parkes to do nothing of the kind.
Sir H.S. Parkes was glad to hear that the Grand Secretary had done him this justice. The Treaty contained nothing that in his opinion, China could possibly object to, and he was certain that it would prove very beneficial to Corea. The negotiations had been protracted, as it required time and patience to instill modern ideas into the minds of Corean Officials, whose conceptions of foreign intercourse were necessarily limited. Though protracted, they had been amicable throughout, and nothing had been forced upon the Corean nation. The Treaty was a new one, it having been found impracticable to retain the Treaty of last year, which was too restrictive to be feasible. That this was the case was proved by the fact that ever since his arrival in the country the United States’ Minister had been vainly striving to modify the instrument that his Government had seen fit to ratify.
The Tariff agreed to between Corea and Japan had been altered in some respects in order to secure more conformity with the principles upon which customs dues should be levied. Four rates of duty had been laid down, and article had been classified under these different rates on an intelligible system, instead of, as in the Japanese Tariff, being inserted more or less at random. Some reductions had been made in the latter Tariff, as, in deference to China, it would not have been right that the average rate of this Tariff should have exceeded 7½ per cent. His Excellency laughingly acknowledged the compliment, and observed that 7½ per cent. was the amount of the import duties and transit duties of China combined.
Sir H.S. Parkes went on to say that a 10 and a 20 per cent. rate had also been somewhat reluctantly added at the insistence of the Corean Government, who seemed to be greatly in want of revenue, but these rates had been confined to costly commodities. The Trade Regulations were an improvement on the cumbrous Rules promulgated by the Corean Foreign Office with the aid of M. von Möllendorff, but it had naturally been a work of some time to convince them of the inferiority of their own production to the shorter document that they finally agreed to accept.
The Grand Secretary having remarked that the commercial capacities of Corea were exceedingly limited, Sir H.S. Parkes remarked that he hoped Corea would now bestir herself, and take advantage of the opportunity afforded her of improving her present backward condition by the development of resources which had hitherto lain dormant in the absence of any but purely local demands. In any case, he feared some years must elapse before the trade of the country would become of consequence to British merchants.
His Excellency then asked what was to be the arrangement with regard to the appointment of British officials in Corea. It seemed to him, both on the score of economy and propriety, that the British Minister in China should combine Corea with his diplomatic duties. Local matters could be settled between the Consul and the Corean authorities, but important questions should be referred to the sovereign country, and discussed by the Chinese Government and the British Representative. Corea was actually nearer to Peking and more accessible than many Chinese provinces, and it was eminently fitting that the British Representative in China should also control British interests in the tributary country. His Excellency hoped that Sir H.S. Parkes would urge the expediency of this arrangement upon Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Sir H.S. Parkes concurred in the reasonableness of his Excellency’s suggestion, and said that he would bring it to the notice of Her Majesty’s Government. In reply to a request from the Grand Secretary to be furnished with a copy of the Treaty and Tariff, he said he would endeavour to let him have one, but as it was unusual to communicate documents of this nature before they had been received by the Home Government, he must request his Excellency to consider the communication as strictly confidential.
The Grand Secretary called at Her Majesty’s Consulate on the following afternoon (6th December), to return the visit of Sir H.S. Parkes, and at the same time to bid farewell to Mr. Grosvenor.
His Excellency’s first question was whether the copy of the Treaty with Corea which had been promised him was ready, and after reading it from beginning to end, he agreed, in answer to a question from Sir H.S. Parkes, that it contained nothing that was calculated to place China in a false position with regard to Corea, and spontaneously expressed his high approval of the tact and intelligence that its preparation evinced. He observed that, as its provisions were wholly commercial, China was in no degree concerned in them. He only commented on one point during the perusal of the Treaty, remarking, on coming to the clause securing the free exercise of their religion to British subjects, that it gave missionaries the right to exercise their calling as well. The Trade Regulations his Excellency warmly approved of, and pronounced them to be concise and clear. He was promised a copy of the Tariff as soon as it could be conveniently prepared. He should, his Excellency said, like to see it, as he proposed to make it binding on Chinese subjects as well, for though Corea was her tributary, China did not interfere in the fiscal administration of the country, and Corea was at liberty to make her own Tariff.
A short conversation followed on the subject of the prohibition of the export of red ginseng, which Sir H.S. Parkes thought the Corean Government would do well to remove in their own interests. The Grand Secretary explained that the sale of red ginseng was a monopoly of the King’s , and the income which he derived from it was all that he had to depend upon for subsistence. The monopoly exercised was in some respects similar to that maintained in the case of opium in India. All the places in which red ginseng was grown were under official supervision, and yearly Returns of the crops were furnished to the King, who levied a royalty upon the sales of about 40 per cent. Tong King-sing, the well-known Chinese financial agent, had endeavoured last year to purchase this monopoly from the King at a fixed annual sum, but the King had declined the offer. It might be possible in time, when Corea was better acquainted with the principles of trade, to allow the export of red ginseng at a special rate of duty in advance of those laid down in the Tariff, but at present nothing but an ad valorem duty of 40 or 50 per cent. would secure the King his usual income, and that rate was more than foreign Governments would be disposed to agree to.
On being asked what was the truth of the rumoured intention of the Chinese Government to waive the right granted to Chinese merchants to open commercial establishments in Söul, the Grand Secretary replied that he knew of no such intention. Practically, Chinese merchants found no inducement to settle there, but in any case, as the right was granted in the British Treaty, it need not be withdrawn from Chinese.
Sir H.S. Parkes explained that at the solicitation of the Corean Government, who had informed him that the question was under the consideration of the Chinese Government, he had consented to waive this right if the Chinese did so, being anxious, as he had explained yesterday, not to coerce Corea in any way. At the same time, he was glad to find that the rumour had no foundation, as the withdrawal of commercial privileges from the most important of the few trading centres that the country possessed would be manifestly undesirable in the interests of Corea herself. His Excellency repeated that there was no such intention under consideration.
Reference being made to the land trade with China across the Corean frontier, which pays only a 5 per cent. rate of duty, his Excellency contended that in this respect the situation and peculiar relations of the two countries presented conditions which could not be shared by other nations.
He was reminded that another nation, namely, Russia, had a frontier conterminous with that of Corea, but this his Excellency denied. It was true, he said, that the T'umên River was the frontier of Corea, and the Russian Treaty with China of 1860 denoted the T'umên River as the Russian boundary-line in that direction, but the same Article declared that the limitations as laid down in a Map to be drawn up were to form the actual boundary, and on this Map the frontier-line was placed some 20 li away from the T'umên River. There intervened, therefore, between the Corean and the Russian limits a strip of waste ground belonging to China. His Excellency went on to say that when the question of a Treaty between Russia and Corea was under consideration last year, the Russian Minister, M. de Butzow, had raised this very point. On reference being made to the Corean Government, they had replied that as their own and the Russian frontier were not contiguous, there was no occasion to discuss the question of frontier trade at all.
Sir H.S. Parkes suggested that the Corean Government were not in a position to say more than that their frontier stopped at the T'umên River. He spoke of course under correction, but he had always understood, and it was popularly believed, that the Russian frontier was contiguous with that of Corea at a certain point on that river.
The Grand Secretary said he would tell Sir H.S. Parkes in confidence what was the actual state of the case at present. The Russians had crossed their frontierline and advanced to the T'umên River, but on the fact of this encroachment coming to the notice of the Chinese authorities last year, a protest was sent by the Tsung-li Yamên to the Russian Minister. The Russian Minister replied that he had received no information on the subject, but if there had been any encroachment, the matter must be settled by special Commissioners. The attention of the Russian Minister was again drawn to the matter in the spring of this year, when he once more suggested the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry, which the Grand Secretary thought might possibly be arranged for next spring.

Tien-tsin, December 5, 1883