532
that, according to a telegram received from the
Viceroy at Canton, His Majesty's Consul-General was
some time since informed of the conclusion to raise
capital locally, and that you saw no reason there-
fore for appointing an official to enter into nego-
tiations with the representative of the British and
Chinese Corporation.
I confess that the contents of this Note Bur-
prise me. As your Highness is aware there is a
Preliminary Agreement in regard to this matter which
was concluded by the British and Chinese Corporation
with His Excellency Sheng Hsuan-huai, on behalf of
the Chinese Government, on March 28th, 1899; and
what I am asking for is the fulfilment of this agree-
ment. Yet, unless I misjudge the contents of Your
Highness' Note, both you and the Viceroy of Canton,
on the pretext that the proposals contained in my
memorandum of April 26th do not accord with the Pre-
liminary Agreement, consider its provisions null and
void, clearly because some Cantonese notables and
merchants wish you to do so. Am I to understand
that
that Your Highness and the Viceroy of Canton serious-
ly think that in deference to the wishes of local
persone anxious to profit themselves it is open to
the Chinese Government to repudiate a solemn agree-
ment regardless of the views of the other party to
the agreement? I am aware that opinions of this
nature are ventilated in the Chiness press, but if
they are held by the Chinese Government or by the
Viceroy of Canton with the approval of the Chinese
Government, I should be glad to be told so officially
for the information of His Majesty's Government.
It is moreover astonishing to me that Your High-
ness should seriously allege any portion of the con-
tents of my memorandum of April 26th, which are mere
proposals, as a sufficient reason for abrogating the
Preliminary Agreement of 1899, which is a signed and
sealed contract.
Your Highness says that the division of the
railway into two sections the Kowloon section to be
built by the Hongkong Government, and the Canton sec-
tion by the British and Chinese Corporation for the
Chinese
y