This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[28451]
No. 1.
[August 26.]
SECTION 2.
98
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Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey,-(Received August 26.)
(No. 335.)
Peking, July 11, 1907. Sir,
REFERRING to my despatch No. 305 of the 25th ultimo, I have the honour to inclose copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Consul-General at Mukden, respecting the arrangements which are being made for securing through railway communication across the Chinese Northern and South Manchurian Railway systems.
The Hsin Min Tun-Mukden section has, it will be seen, been converted to the standard gauge, and the Chinese Northern Railway is running its own rolling-stock as far as Mukden. The connection of the two systems at the latter place is for the present being hampered by the question of stations and the difference in rolling-stock, but these are difficulties which will doubtless soon disappear in response to the demands for a through service.
It is gratifying to learn that the promise which Baron Goto recently gave to the mercantile community at Newchwang has been so soon fulfilled by the publication of an announcement that from the 1st instant no preferential railway rates in favour of Dalny will be maintained.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
(No. 22.) Sir,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Consul-General Fulford to Sir J. Jordan.
Mukden, July 8, 1907. I HAVE the honour to inform you that Mr. Rigby, District Engineer of the North China Railway at Kou Pang Tzu, recently visited Mukden in company with Mr. Margarion, the Japanese engineer in the employ of the North China Railway, in charge of the Hsin Min Tun-Mukden section.
The gauge of the section has now been altered to 4 ft. 8 in., the standard of the North China Railway, and the Chinese Railway runs its own rolling-stock to Mukden. Mr. Rigby informed me that the North China Railway desires to bring the line to the gate of Mukden town, instead of having the station near the Japanese railway station, 1 miles from the city. There may be difficulties in the way, for the Japanese Railway authorities are said to be averse to allowing the Chinese line to pass either above or below their own.
The Japanese also object to the Chinese and their own railways having a common station, and it would be a needless hindrance to the business of the Chinese Railway to keep its station, goods-yard, &c., even further from the city than the Japanese, and to have all their traffic compelled to cross the Japanese line in carts. The connection of the two lines, as arranged for in the Agreement of the 15th April, will also be hampered by the fact that the couplings of the new rolling-stock of the Japanese Railway, now beginning to arrive in Dalny, are fixed lower than those of the Chinese Railway. No interchange of rolling-stock between the two lines is practicable
under these circumstances.
It is the intention of the Chinese Railway to throw a new bridge over the Liao River between Hsin Min Tun and Mukden, half-a-mile in length, of stone piers and iron girders, in place of the wooden bridge constructed by the Japanese.
It has been announced by the Japanese Railway authorities that from the 1st July a new scale of freight charges will come into force all along their line, with no preferential rate in favour of Dalny. The scale is high: 8 sen per ton per mile for first-class goods; 63 sen for second-class goods, which include beans and their products; and 5 sen for third-class goods. These rates are much higher than those of the Chinese line, which is now carrying beans for 2 cents per ton per mile.
I have, &c. (Signed) H. E. FULFORD.
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