Note to Prince Ch'ing reviewing correspondence which had passed between His Majesty's Consul General and the Viceroy from which it appeared that the Viceroy proposed to abrogate the preliminary agreement for no better reason than that the situation in China had changed since 1899.
That such a proposition should be seriously advanced by His Excellency seemed to Sir E. Satow astonishing, for if the abrogation of the preliminary agreement could be so justified there was nothing to prevent the Chinese Government from repudiating the foreign loans or abrogating all the treaties with foreign powers on the grounds that the conditions had changed in the intervals since they were concluded.
Sir E. Satow mentioned that he had sent Chinese versions of the draft final agreement with the British and Chinese Corporation and proposed working agreement with the Hongkong Government to His Excellency T'ung Shao-yi on January 11th, and requested that definite telegraphic instructions might be sent to the Viceroy by the Chinese Government to order his delegates to discuss their contents with the Corporation's representative.
On January 22nd copies of the English texts of the draft agreements mentioned above were sent to His Excellency Tang Shao-yi.
Sir E. Satow has been informed by telegram that the Viceroy still refuses to discuss the draft agreements and he therefore again requests that the Chinese Government issue definite instructions to the Viceroy of Canton in the sense desired.
Sir E. Satow also requests Prince Ch'ing to favour him with a written reply to his Note of January 12th for the information of His Majesty's government.
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