r. Collinson: he liked Mr. Collinson and had nothing
to say against him except that he had been perform-
ing his duties without a contract, and that was con-
trary to the intention of the Loan Agreement.
His Excellency had just received a letter from
Li Ching-fang (Lord L1), who is in charge of the
railway administration at Shanghai during his absence
in Peking, warning him that if these matters were not
promptly settled the affairs of the Shanghai-Nanking
Railway would become as "disordered" as those of the
Canton-Hankow Railway.
To
After Mr. Campbell promised to report these two
complaints to me, Sheng kung-pao indicated that he
had not yet made up his mind to undertake the nego-
tiations in regard to the Canton-Kowloon Railway,
this Mr. Campbell rejoined that the Wai Wu Pu had
mentioned him as the proper negotiator. His Excel-
lency explained that he had kept silent when my sum-
mary was sent to him, and had kept silent again when
the Wei Wu Pu sent him later the telegram from the
Viceroy of Canton mentioned in the second paragraph
366
of this despatch. When asked his reasons for this
silence he told Mr. Campbell, for my private informa-
tion, that he intended to endeavour to transfer the
burden of the negotiations to the Board of Commerce.
At the time of the Preliminary Agreement there was
no Board of Commerce, and all commercial negotiations
with Foreign Powers were thrust upon him. Now there
was such a Board he thought it should undertake these
negotiations. However he could not say for certain
whether he would undertake them, or the Board of
Commerce, or the Viceroy of Canton. If he under.
took them he should require from the Viceroy of
Canton the assistance of a delegate. In the meantime
he would examine the contents of the draft agree-
ments.
There was one point however on which he could
say something definite at once, and that was the
proposed sum of £2,000,000 for the railway loan.
That amount was out of the question and would have
to be reduced. He had been taken severely to task
by the Board of Commerce over the amount of the
of
Shanghai
5