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Sir E. Satow suggested to Sir M. Nathan in reply that it would be better to stand out for negotiations on the basis of the draft Agreements, as to give the text of the Northern Railways Loan Agreement would be equivalent to conceding the point that it should form the basis of the negotiations.
Sir Ernest added, as a further suggestion, that the British negotiator might examine, without exhibiting any eagerness to accept, the proposal to negotiate on the basis of that latter Agreement if such a proposal were brought forward by the Viceroy's delegates in the course of the discussion.
On January 26th the Governor stated that he had asked His Majesty's Consul General at Canton to inform the Viceroy that if he had any object beyond causing delay, he could obtain copies of the Northern Railways Agreement from his own Government, but that it had no bearing on the Preliminary Agreement of 1899 with regard to the Canton Kowloon line.
Sir E. Satow concludes by saying that the Chinese New Year holidays have prevented him from pressing
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