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Transistion of a letter from Sir Chentung Liang to his
Excellency Sheng Kungpao.
12581
359
U.S.A.. 26th, of the 9th.
Moon, 14th.November,
1903.
Your Excellency,
Of late there has been frequent references
in the Foreign Press to the fact that the Belgian Stockholders
in the American China Development Company have been making
trouble. The facts as far as I know them are as follows:-
Since the death of President McKinley there
have been differences of opinion between the shareholders, of
whom some, scared by the troubles in North China, privately sold
their original shares. It was said that the Belgians bought two-
thirds of the shares; in other words only one-third of the shares
was left in American hands; and that the then Minister at Washing-
ton (Wu) was never consulted in the matter. Ever since that time
the stockholders of the two nations (American and Belgian) have
been unable to work smoothly together and it is greatly due to
Mr. Farson's credit that no serious rupture has occurred; the
cause of Mr. Gray's trouble and difficulties might also be fairly
attributed to the difference of opinion among the stockholders.
Mr. Farson came to see me the other day, when he explained to me
the difficult situation in which he is placed and at the same
time he suggested 3 alternative ways for carrying out the con-
struction of the Canton-Hankow lines, viz:- (a) Surrender of all
the stock remaining in the hands of the Americans to the Belgians and then surrender all the rights of the American Company to a
Belgian Company allowing the Belgians to take over the entire
control and the construction, or (b) let Your Excellency deal
firmly