[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C. O.
544
[March 1983
RECZ SHOTION 2.
REGE 5 APR 07)
[7670]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received March 9.)
(No. 33.) Sir,
Peking, January 21, 1907. WITH reference to my despatch No. 21 of the 8th January, and to your telegram No. 5 of the 10th January, I have the honour to inclose copy of a note which I addressed to Prince Ching on the 14th January, informing his Highness that His Majesty's Government claim the right to construct the Bhamo-Tengyueh Railway under the engagement of March 1902, and that a Concession for that short line is not considered fully equivalent to the Concession granted in April 1898 to the French Government, or to a French Company designated by the French Government, to build a railway from Lao-kay to Yünnan-fu.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ching.
Your Highness,
Peking, January 14, 1907. IN a note of the 28th December your Highness informed me of the receipt of a telegram from the Viceroy of Yunnan, in which it was urged that, the gentry and merchants of Yunnan having made arrangements to establish a Company for the construction of the Tengyueh Railway with Chinese capital, British engineers should not be permitted to cross the frontier for the purpose of making a reconnaissance of the route between Tengyueh and Tali-fu. In regard to this telegram your Highness referred to a note of the 30th October, 1901, addressed to Sir Ernest Satow, and stated that, as the line from Tengyueh to Tali-fu is to be constructed by China, the survey should also be undertaken by China, and that it was not practicable now to grant permission to British engineers to conduct a reconnaissance on the Chinese side of the frontier.
Your Highness has omitted to mention the later correspondence of March 1902 which passed between you and Sir Ernest Satow. In his note of the 12th March of that year Sir Ernest Satow reminded your Highness that Mr. Litton, His Majesty's Acting Consul at Tengyueh, was about to proceed to Yunnan-fu to discuss railway, frontier, and other matters with the Viceroy, and stated that, with regard to railway connections between Burmah and Yunnan, and measures for the advancement of trade, he was assuming as a matter of course that whatever privileges were conceded by the Chinese Government to French enterprise in Yunnan, similar privileges would also be accorded to British enterprise. Sir Ernest mentioned that his instructions to Mr. Litton were based on that assumption, and he requested your Highness to be so good as to issue instructions in the same sense to the Yun-Kuei Viceroy. Your Highness replied on the 16th March, quoting Sir Ernest's note, and stating that a communication had been addressed by the Wai-wu Pu to the Viceroy in accordance with the terms thereof,
I am the more surprised that your Highness has forgotten to refer to this correspondence for the reason that only a month ago, on the 11th December last, at the Wai-wu Pn, I showed your note of the 16th March, 1902, to the Grand Secretary Cbt Hung-chi, in order to remind the Wai-wu Pu of its purport, and I also warned the Chinese Government, through his Excellency, against the issue of any Decree which would contravene the terms of the engagement that "whatever privileges were conceded by the Chinese Government to French enterprise in Yunnan, similar privileges would also be accorded to British enterprise." The Grand Secretary not only took note of my warning, but also remarked that the force of the passage above quoted, which he read, WAS very strong."
EG
[2421 i-2]