FOREIGN OFFICE,
January 20th 1906.
85
Sir:-
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Note of the 11th instant, enclosing a translation of a telegram from the Viceroy of Canton respecting the Canton-Kowloon Railway.
It is stated in the telegram that the Agreement concluded in 1899 was a private one between Sheng Tajen and the British and Chinese Corporation and not an agreement between the two governments.
It is also stated that if the work of construction is to be carried out by the English Syndicate, it is feared that it will be opposed.
In reply I have the honour to observe that the Preliminary Agreement signed on March 28th 1899 was a formal undertaking entered into by Sheng Tajen "acting under the authority of the Tsungli Yamen" i.e. on behalf of the Chinese Government and that it is clearly out of the question that such an agreement should be set aside by one of the parties to it.
Jang Ta-Sieh,
&c., &c., &c.