[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[32211]
No. 1.
749
[September 24.]
SECTION 1
38281
RECE Reef 17 OCT 06
Mr. Carnegie to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received September 24.) (No. 335. Confidential.) Sir,
WITH reference to my despatch No. 314, Confidential, of the 23rd July, I have the honour to inclose, for your information, copy of a confidential despatch, which I addressed to the Governor of Hong Kong on the 4th instant, on the subject of the Canton-Kowloon Railway negotiations. Sir Matthew Nathan desires that the conclusion of the joint Working Agreement at Canton or Hong Kong shall precede or be simultaneous with the signing of the final Loan Agreement in Peking, and I am endeavouring to convince him that the most practical course, bearing in mind the stubborn and obstructive tactics of the Chinese authorities at both places, is not to lay down any hard and fast condition in the matter, but to leave me reasonably free to do the best I can in Hong Kong interests.
I learn that the deputies of the Viceroy of Canton have arrived in Peking, and if the Wai-wu Pu do not soon appoint a day for opening negotiations with Mr. Bland I shall press them to do so.
As regards the Whampoa scheme, I received a secret despatch yesterday from Sir M. Nathan containing further information, which I am endeavouring to verify through His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, with a view to immediate further action at the Wai-wu Pu.
I have, &c.
(Signed) LANCELOT D. CARNEGIE.
(Confidential.) Sir,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Mr. Carnegie to Governor Sir M. Nathan.
I HAD the honour to repeat to your Excellency a telegram sent by me to Sir E. Grey on the 30th July with reference to the negotiations for the Final Agreement of the Canton-Kowloon Railway, in which I said that I understood Mr. Bland's instructions to be still the same as stated in Inclosure 7 of your despatch, Secret, of the 6th April last to the Earl of Elgin, and that the Chinese proposals would doubtless be based on those of the Viceroy of Canton, as set out in Inclosure 5 of the same despatch. I also said that Mr. Bland did not conceal that the British and Chinese Corporation attached much less importance to the Kowloon than the Soochow-Hangchow-Ningpo line, the construction of which would be far more profitable to them. Though he was aware that your Excellency was in favour of the acceptance of the Viceroy's proposals as a basis for further negotiations, provided that a joint Working Agreement satisfactory to the Hong Kong Government was concluded simultaneously with the Loan Agreement, I was persuaded, I said, that he would make no attempt to meet your wishes and would continue his efforts to keep the Soochow and Kowloon questions together, in the hope, no doubt, of being able to secure more immediate support from His Majesty's Government in regard to the former. I went on to state my personal agreement with your views, and to submit that the Corporation should be informed that the attitude shown in Inclosure 7 above mentioned must be abandoned if an immediate deadlock in the negotiations here was to be avoided; for I felt sure that, in the present state of Chinese opinion, popular and official, on railway matters, nothing short of force would induce the Chinese Government to accept the British and Chinese Corporation's draft Loan Agreement of the 16th February last.
The above telegram was sent for the purpose of clearing the ground for the negotiations, which, in view of the coming of the Viceroy's deputy, Kung, as mentioned in your telegram of the 26th July, I expected might begin at a near date. When I dispatched it Mr. Bland was on his way from Peitaiho. (He had been away from Peking...
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