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was given to him and he was told that a correct
Chinese version would be found in the Shanghai Hsin-
wen Pao; this his secretary Mr. Chan had just seen.
Mr. Bland also handed in his Memorandum on
Railway Construction in China with apologies for the
inferiority of its Chinese translation.
The Vice-
roy said all that was needed was clearness and free-
dom from humbug.
Mr. Bland then stated that while in Peking he
had seen the President of the Board of Communica-
tions, who had assured him that, provided the Vice-
roy did not object, his Board would support the rais-
ing abroad of a construction loan for the Yueh-Han
and other Hu-Kuang railways.
Shao-i held the same views.
as the Board wrote or telegraphed that such a scheme
would be acceptable, to memorialize the Throne for
leave to borrow abroad for the building of Hupei's
sections of the trunk lines south and west. He had
been twice snubbed last year when he advocated this
step and he dare not move again unless assured of a
favourable reception of his proposals.
Mr. Bland enquired whether Hunan could not be in-
duced to come into line with Hupei. But His Excel-
lency vehemently asserted that the Hunan gentry with
whom all control lay would not listen to any argument
on the subject, being in this and other matters obsti-
nate, pigheaded and unenlightened,
Vice-President T'ang
never pay.
Mr. Bland was proceeding to advocate a uniform
system for all provincial railways and the making
of the whole Hankow-Canton line one government under-
taking when the Viceroy interposed that those were
questions for the Central Authorities; all he could
guarantee was that he was ready and anxious, so soon
We suggested that a line only to Yochow would
His Excellency agreed and said he had
hopes of being able to get Hunan to let Hupei continue
the line to Changsha on the understanding that Hupei
and not foreigners would be the lender. Possibly in
course of time, if that line proved a benefit, the
Hunanese of whom the moneyed merchants would never
supply the gentry with funds for railways nor the
needy
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