613
by the fact that both in December and in May the lenders
1
were, I understood, to have been the British and China
Corporation, which seemed to be confirmed by your telegram
No 26 of June 2nd. of the new company which was to be
formed for the trunk line southwards neither I nor Mr.
Hillier had any recent information.
On other points his views were more in harmony with
ours, though he kept altering his note of the terms he
wanted.
Ultimately His Excellency jotted down the amount of
the loan as £1,500,000; the interest 5%; the term twenty
five years during the first ten of which only interest
would be payable; extra drawingsof bonds allowed after the
completion of ten years but such bonds to carry 21% pre-
mium up to the fifteenth year. The Viceroy did not object
to the engineer clause; in fact he altered it to read that
only British engineers should be employed on works execut-
ed with the proceeds of the loan, the purpose of which he
defined as I
which Mr Hillier translates as "public
works", I as "engineering and tradal undertakings",
The only other serious objection raised by him was as
to the appointment of a receiver of the likin revenue in
case of default in payment of interest or instalments of
principal