Page 423
CIRCUMSTANCES be included. He took occasion also to point out that the uncertainty (entailing serious risk of a considerable fall in Chinese securities) arising out of the present position of the Shanghai Nanking Railway bond Issue, must of necessity be removed before the Board could reasonably be expected to incur the further responsibility of issuing the Canton Kowloon Railway Loan; he hoped therefore that the decision in this matter might no longer be postponed.
H.B. T'ang Shao Yi stated that the authority to issue the Bonds would be given in five days, but that the Chinese Government would expect to receive 96, this being the rate mentioned in his Memorial on the subject. MR. BLAND replied that this rate was named when the Loan was quoted at over 103, excluding interest; the present price, received by wire today being 100½, and the issue could not therefore be made at more than 99% to 100.
To expect the price to be 96 was asking an impossibility.
It was agreed that a meeting would be held on Wednesday next at 2.30 p.m. to consider the Corporation's final terms as to the period of option for the Canton Kowloon Railway Loan issue, at which meeting the completely revised draft agreement would be submitted in English and Chinese.
In conclusion, MR. BLAND suggested that the wording of Article 18 was vague and likely to lead to complications hereafter, owing to the difficulty of defining the actual interstate regulations; he suggested an amendment to the text, which was agreed to, omitting all reference to this condition.
The meeting then adjourned.
(Signed)
J.O.P. Bland.
Page 423