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bort of Wn Ting Fang, then Chinese Almister Washington
s the rest of the survey made by Mr. clay Parsons, the syndicate's engineer, in rdance with the terms of the Washington ecment of 1898, it was found that the cost of Tine would be considerably more than the first mates on both sides there was, moreover, a tre to modify and extend some of the original ditions. A supplementary agreement was, refore, required; and the syndicate sent an erican lawyer of distinction, Mr. Clarence y, to negotiate the same with Shông in the mer of 1899. After long and vexatious pour- Hers-wherein French and Belgian influence again openly exercised to frustrate the erican syndicate's aims-Mr. Cary concluded work at the end of November, and his ft contract was submitted for ratification at ing and New York respectively.
franco-Belgian opposition to the American ertaking was intensified when, upon publica- 1 of the British Blue-book [China, No. 1 of 1899] scame known that British capital had been ited by the Americans to share in the enter- c. The French Consul-General at Shanghai ormed Shêng, shortly after Mr. Cary's arrival
the scene, that China would be held guilty of faith if she accepted the introduction of tish capital for this railway, and similar repre- tations were made at Peking by the Russian ration. Mr. Cary, although strongly supported Washington and Peking, experienced in- erable difficulty in obtaining any satisfaction interviews with Sheng, extended over several ths; and it was openly stated by the Franco- gian party at the time that Sheng dared not! anything contrary to their views in this Her. Suddenly, and without apparent cause, anch opposition ceased, Shông became tract- e, and the Belgians seemed reconciled to the vitable. The American
sed
attribute to
this state of affairs the firmness of their OWN attitude; Reality it was due to the fact that Belgian ivity had changed its field from Shanghai to York and its method of attack from the stal political to the flanking movement acial. After the disgrace of Ll Hung-chang knowing the views of Chang Chilelung, would not have been prudent for Shéng to Selaim his sympathies for the Belgian group; t he was undoubtedly aware of the new plan ampaign, and he has since done his utmost to port it, even when compelled by public nion to memorialize the Throne in favour maintaining inviolate the American status of jayndicate.
syndicate were
Fowards the close of 1899 and before the con- Bon of Mr. Cary's negotiations with Sheng, eral Whittier, now president of the Americau m Development Company, was employed, lex instructions from the Belgian group, to are by purchase in New York a controlling aher of the original shares. Prominent in the gian Company, in which King Leopold has personally interested, were Colonel Thys, Congo fame, and Senator de Volder, ex- ister of Finance; their first object was to re the control of this important trunk line, it was materially facilitated by the fact that ce the death of Senator Brice the syndicato lost the energetic and distinctly American racter which, as president, he had Infused its affairs, and which had induced soveral pitalists to support his enterprise. Moreover, arch, 1900, came the first signs of the Boxer ement, and as it grew the objects of the Belgian ap became correspondingly easier of attain- at. In the meantime Sheng professed to regard facts with doubt and the whole affair with in- erence, and it was not until the Belgians had red the rights over a controlling interest that proceeded to telegraph to Wu Ting Fang at hington his authority to sign this American
act whereof the rights could not sferred to people of other nationality." the syndicate began work, with $3,000,000 tal anbscribed by the stockholders, on the struction of the first section of the railway: hwords from Canton. Of this capital two- ds was provided by the Belgien, and one-į d by the American, interest. Nevertheless,
"be
during the construction of this section the outward appearance of American nationality was maintained. The president of the company in New York and its general manager and staff in China were of American nationality and instinct, and it was not till 1903 that the Continental group. began to assert its controlling right. How that right has been asserted, what intrigues have been carried on in New York, Washington, and Shang- hai, space does not permit me to describe. Suffco it to say that, after long negotiations for a proposed separation of interests (which Sheng was quito ready to entertain), the agents of King Leopold,who control the directorate,showed their band unmistakably at the beginning of the present year. The accounts of the Brussels office of the syndicate were in dispute, no further capital was forthcoming, affairs in New York were at a deadlock, work was stoppel on the railway. and the general manager at Shanghai recalled, Since then Mr. Parsons has been compelled to resign the presidency of the board, most of the American subscribed capital has been refunded by the Belgians, and the general manager's services have been terminated. The board of directors has become overwhelmingly Belgian, and its operations are openly in sympathy with those of the Peking-Ian-kau Syndicate, naively referred to by General Whittier as the Northern Belgian group," and, if the policy of Colonel Thys continues to be as successful as it has been, the amalgamation of the Peking-Han-kau with the Han-kau-Canton Railway under Franco-Belgian direction and control, can only be a matter of time. That, under such conditions, the American Government should have consented to recognize the syndicato as an American corporation is a! fact which speaks well for the adroit diplomacy of Sheng, and his latest special mission to Washing- ton; but it is genuinely deplored by Chang Chih- tung and the many uative officials who share his views in this matter and who desire to see the contract annulled.
In recent correspondence published in the New York Journal of Commerce, having reference to the international aspect of the cuse, General Whittier, defending the position of the Belgian interest, alleges that the Belgian company of the northern line has a right of reversion in the American concession, should the American con- cessionaries fail to carry it out," and he adds that this right was granted by the Imperial Chinese Government, From this statement, apparently accepted in good faith not only by the American Press, but by the United States Legation in Peking, it has been deduced that, because the Belgians are entitled to such reversion, the American nationality of the under- taking need not be too strongly defended. As a matter of fact, however, no such reversionary rights exist. In April, 1890, when the Peking-Han-kau railway loan was issued in Brussels, the pre- ferential right in question was referred to in the prospectus. Questioned by the British Minister, the Tsung-li-Yamên denied that any ench promise had been given, and on May 10 wrote a formal despatch stating that "no sneh stipulation was contained in the Belgian agree! ment, nor had "there been any subsequent arrangement of the kind." (Page 156, Blue-book of 1899.) Yet a letter had been written by the Director-General of Railways, Sheng Ta-jon, to the Belgian Syndicate on June 26, 1898, giving them rights of reversion to the southern trunk line "in the event of the preliminary Washington contract not being definitely concluded; but from the above-quoted reply of the Chinese to the British Government it is evident that this promise was unauthorized, and possibly unknown to the Yauen. Sheng's action, as usual, reffects on his integrity, but, inasmuch as the Washington con- tract was subsequently concluded, whatever rights the Belgians muy have had must thereby have lapsed. Shông's letter of June 26 is appended to the official text of the Peking-Han-kan contract, so that neither the British nor the Chinese Govern- went had any valid excuse for being in ignorance of · its purport. Nor can the recent Belgian claims to reversionary rights advanced both at Peking and at Washington ba recognized. To quote once more the words of Lord Salisbury (May 26, 1808), “a concession of this nature is no longer a commer- cial or industrial enterprise, and becomes a political movement against British interests in the region of the Yang-tsze." England obtained a definite guarantee in 1899 that China had given no such reversionary rights to the Bolgians; the. claims thereto recently advanced are therefore