[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
54
6
borrowing a large sum from Belgium, and, in reply, the Board had refused their
sanction.
The North China Daily News" reported on the 17th January that the Director- General of the Railways of the Province of Kiangsi had closed with a Belgian Syndicate a 6 per Cent. Loan of 4,000,000 taels for the building of a line from Kiukiang to Nanchang, which will be the first part of a railway to be constructed through the whole Min Valley. Former negotiations with a Japanese Syndicate, and then with a German firm, were reported to have been unsuccessful.
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[10977]
No. 1.
C.O
[April 6.]
15523
SECTION 5,
Rec
PE 9 MAY 07
Consul General Wilkinson to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 6.)
(No. 1.) Sir,
Yunnan-fu, January 30, 1907. REFERRING to my despatch No. 36 of the 31st ultimo, I have the honour to inclose copy of a despatch which I have addressed to the Acting British Consul at Tengyueh on the instructions issued by the Governor-General here to a Major, Chang Kuei-tsu, recently sent to Tengyueh in connection with Mr. Lilley's coming reconnaissance.
I have, &c.
(Signed) W. H. WILKINSON.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
0
Consul-General Wilkinson to Acting Consul Ottewill.
(No. 1. Confidential.) Sir,
Yünnan-fu, January 30, 1907. ON the 17th instant I received your telegram asking me to ascertain what are the instructions given by the Governor-General to a Mahommedan officer now at Tengyueh named Chang Kuei-tsu.
As the result of my inquiries, I replied on the 19th that the instructions were confidential, but that my Chinese writer, who had succeeded in seeing them, reported that they contained nothing objectionable. I condensed my writer's recollections of the document into the statement that "Chang, who speaks English, is to be associated with Ting Taotai, and is to accompany Mr. Lilley, reporting to the Governor-General; though nominally travelling, Mr. Lilley will make a survey, and Chang will assist.'
I have now obtained confidentially a copy of what I am assured is the full text of the instructions issued to Chang Kuei-tsu, who, I may here observe, is a " Yiuch'i or Major. Of those instructions I beg to inclose a copy, together with my translation. Beyond the incidental statement in the first paragraph that the Yunnan-Szechuan and Tengyueh Railways are, in consequence of a Memorial, to be constructed by the Chinese themselves, there would seem to be nothing to which we could possibly take exception. As you are aware, it is incorrect to say that the Imperial assent has been given to the proposal for exclusive Chinese construction of the Tengyueh Railway, however true such an assertion may be of the Yunnan-Szechuan line.
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. H. WILKINSON.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Governor-General's Instructions to Major Chang Kuci-tsu, Yünnan-fu, December 1906.
(Translation.)
IN the matter of the mission of an associate for the construction of the Tengyueh Railway.
Whereas Yünnan has memorialized for, and obtained permission to establish, a Company to elect Directors and their associates, and to invite subscription to the share capital, for the construction by ourselves of the Yünnan-Szechuan and Tengyueh Railways, and the Governor-General some time since deputed the expectant Taotai of Kuangtung, resident here, Wang Hung-t'u, and the expectant Taotai of Chekiang,
[2449 f--5]