CONFIDENTIAL.
C.C. 23073 303
Government House, Hongkong, June 7th, 1901.
I have the honour to bring the following to your notice as showing the attitude that is being assumed by the French Government with reference to the provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi.
A Chinese gentleman, Mr. Fung Wa Chun, who lives in Hongkong where he was born, and has amassed a considerable fortune, applied in the Spring of last year for a concession for the establishment of water-works for the supply of water to Canton. His application was favourably considered but Li Hung Chang proposed a condition that there should be none but Chinese share-holders, as he feared possible conflict with French pretensions. After Li Hung Chang's departure for the north, Mr. Fung Wa Chun in September approached the Acting Viceroy, who agreed to give him the concession. While in Canton the French Consul obtained an interview with him and proposed to find in France, the money for the operation, amounting to three millions of dollars. This Mr. Fung Wa Chun declined, as he had already arranged that the Yangtse Valley Syndicate should finance the proposed concession, of which fact he did not however then inform the Consul. The French Consul suggested that he should place himself under the protection of France and offered to register him as a French subject, when he would undertake that any project of his would be strongly supported and insisted upon. This Mr. Fung Wa Chun also declined.