[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[3099]
C.O.
8373
[January 28.]
SECTION 3.
Red 6 MAR 07,
No. 1,
(No. 513. Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received January 28, 1907.)
Confidential.)
Peking, December 9, 1906.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith, in translation, copy of a Memorial recently presented to the Throne by his Excellency Tang Shao-yi in connee- tion with the issue of the balance of the loan for the construction of the Shanghae- Nanking Railway,
This document throws an instructive light upon the nature of the opposition which the loan encountered, and accounts for the long delay in arriving at a final settlement of the question.
Considering the circumstances under which he was writing, it would not, perhaps, be fair to attach very serious importance to some of Mr. Tang's suggestions; but I notice from the Minutes of the last meeting of the Board of Commissioners at Shanghae a tendency to introduce innovations of the nature contemplated by Mr. Tang, which may have to be resisted.
Mr. Bland, who has furnished me with this document, informs me that he intended, before leaving Shanghae on the 7th instant, to have a meeting with the consulting engineer, Mr. Barry, and his colleagues, with the view of arriving at some arrangement for the future management and control of the railway.
Mr. Barry, with whom I had an opportunity of discussing the question here, inclined to the view that the Board of Commissioners was not a success, and that its abolition might be conceded provided the right of financial control was duly recognized and safeguarded.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
(Translation.)
Inclosure in No. 1.
Memorial.
MEMORIAL by Tang Shao-yi, Vice-President of the Wai wu Pu, Minister in charge of the Shanghae-Nanking Railway, for the perusal of His Imperial Majesty, dealing in detail with the affairs of the Shanghae-Nanking Railway and the scarcity of funds for construction purposes.
ON the 4th June, 1906, I received a despatch from the Board of Commerce informing me that that Board, in conjunction with the Board of Revenue, bad memorialized upon the subject of a communication from Wu Yu Sheng as to the use of immense sums by the Shanghae-Nanking Railway, in which he petitioned that some other means of obtaining funds be devised. The suggestion set out in this Memorial received the Imperial sanction, and I was instructed to act in accordance therewith.
In the communication in question a query is formulated as to whether the funds in hand would be of sufficient use, and it is stated that it would be a matter of extreme difficulty to divine this off hand. The country is being subjected to excessive losses in connection with this railway, and the question of how to proceed in remedying matters, whether the funds in hand may not be more sparingly used, and whether further loans may or may not be dispensed with are now the subjects of a Memorial by myself. I have examined the often-recurring Memorials on record presented by the Board of Commerce to the Throne, and the instructions issued by the Board, to the effect that the sums to be used must be reported at frequent intervals to the Board of Commerce for sanction before their appropriation, and to the effect that, the funds in hand at Shanghae and London being still considerable, it would not be necessary to borrow further foreign loans, much less appropriate official funds.
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