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claims.
Though Mr. Cesenave's co-operation vis-à-
vis the Chinese would be mainly for financial pur-
poses, I felt that neither the Chinese Government
nor the Viceroy, who are suspicious of foreign com-
pany methods, would wholly credit this, and after
consultation with His Majesty's Consul-General at
Hankow, I told Mr. Bland that it was in my opinion
premature to move in the matter, but that if he
still thought it useful to interview the Viceroy, he
should do so alone. He represented that he was
bound by his instructions to listen to Mr. Casenave
who was bent on a joint interview, but he left Pek-
ing hurriedly for Tientsin and Shanghai without giv-
ing me to understand that he intended to take any
immediate steps.
I heard unofficially and through third parties
early in this month that Mr. Casenave had left Pek-
ing for Hankow, where he would meet Mr. Bland for
the purpose of seeing the Viceroy with regard to a
construction loan for the Canton-Hankow Railway.
I warned His Majesty's Consul-General of this by
telegram
telegram on December 10th and stated that my views as
to the inexpediency of a joint interview remained un-
altered. Mr. Fraser's private letter of December
12th and despatch of December 13th, copies of which
are enclosed herewith, will sufficiently explain the
course of events at Hankow which ended in a fruitless
interview between the Viceroy, Mr. Fraser, and Mr.
Bland on December 12th. I think that it is clear
that but for Mr. Fraser's judicious handling of this
matter some prejudice to our claims under the engage-
ment of September 9th, 1905 might have resulted from
the action of the French Consul and Mr. Casenave, and
it would seem to be desirable that the Company repre-
sented by Messrs. Bland and Casenave being British,
its
agents should as far as possible be authorized to ap-
proach the Chinese Authorities only through this Lega-
tion or His Majesty's Consuls.
(Signed)
I have &c.,
J. N. Jordan.