HL Deb 21 March 1901 vol 91 cc639-42
EARL SPENCER

I wish to ask the noble Marquess the Secretary for Foreign Affairs a question of which I have given him private notice—namely, whether he has any information he can give the House as to the incident at Tientsin, in which the public are much interested.

*THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of LANSDOWNE)

I shall be very glad to give the noble Earl whatever information I have in my possession. The House will recollect that this dispute has reference to a somewhat extensive area on the left bank of the Pei-ho River, which in the autumn of last year was occupied by Russian troops and claimed by them as belonging to them by right of conquest. We were subsequently informed that an agreement had been entered into between the Chinese Government and the Russian military authorities, through the medium of Li Hung Chang, by which this area was to pass under Russian occupation. The area in question comprises several plots of land which are held to belong to the Northern Chinese Railway Administration, and which therefore form part of the security of the British bondholders who are interested in these railways. The line at Tientsin forms part of the railway which was originally occupied by Russian troops, but of which a portion was lately transferred by the Russian military authorities to Count von Waldersee, who again transferred it to the British military authorities. Since that transfer it has been worked by them, aided by the staff of the railway.

It appears that it was necessary for the convenience of the allied forces that a railway siding should be constructed on one of the reserved plots to which I have referred, and we learn that the presence of the British working parties on that plot was treated by the Russian military authority as a trespass upon Russian territory. It was subsequently alleged that Russian boundary marks had been removed by our soldiers, and an affront consequently offered to the Russian flag. In the circumstances wetelegraphed on the 16th instant to the authorities in China that in our opinion the right of British and Russian troops to occupy certain disputed points was a question which could most appropriately be disposed of by Field-Marshal von Waldersee, the Commander-in-Chief of the allied forces; and we instructed General Gaselee to invite the Field Marshal to settle the immediate difference which had arisen between the Russian and British military authorities, reserving for future examination all questions concerning the validity of the concession itself and of alleged private rights within its limits. That was on the 16th, and we instructed General Gaselee that in the meanwhile he should avoid using force except for the purpose of repelling aggression.

On the 20th, the alleged removal of the Russian boundary pillar having meanwhile occurred, we again telegraphed to our representative at Peking, instructing him that as it was alleged that British troops had encroached upon Russian territory and removed Russian boundary marks, and as there was a dispute as to the facts, we were ready to refer those facts to Count von Waldersee, or, indeed, to any court which Count von Waldersee desired to appoint for the purpose, on the understanding that if either side had been found to have committed an irregularity that side should offer suitable apology to the other. We added that, in our opinion, the construction of the siding, which we believed to be a matter of some importance to the allied forces, should continue, but under whatever conditions Count von Waldersee might think fit to impose. My Lords. I am glad to say that we have heard this morning from our Ambassador at St. Petersburg that Count Lamsdorff had mentioned the matter to him and desired our Ambassador to propose immediately to His Majesty's Government that we should agree to reserve all questions of title and proprietary rights for examination between the two Governments, and that meanwhile we should at once send orders for the withdrawal on both sides of the troops at the disputed point so as to avoid the risk of accidents.

Count Lamsdorff went on to say that the Russian Minister of War would telegraph specific instructions in this sense if His Majesty's Government would agree to the proposal, and he ended by expressing in very moderate and statesmanlike terms his desire to avoid any cause of friction between the two Governments. I need not say that we at once telegraphed expressing our entire concurrence in the views Count Lamsdorff had expressed, the more so because those views were entirely in accord with the policy we had indicated in the telegrams, the substance of which I have just read to your Lordships. We accordingly sent to our military authorities instructions to carry out a simultaneous withdrawal from the disputed points. We added that we thought that it might be desirable that that withdrawal should be carried out to the satisfaction of Count von Waldersee, so that there might be no room for, or risk of, misunderstanding on matters of detail. I hope the effect of the correspondence I have indicated goes to show that the incident is virtually at an end, and that what really was a very small matter of strictly local importance will not be allowed to disturb the relations between the two countries.