P
1
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Mejaby't for
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[35815]
No. 1.
415
[October 29.]
SECTION 1,
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 432.) Six,
Foreign Office, October 29, 1907. WITH reference to my despatch No. 420 of the 24th instant, I have to inform you that the German Ambassador called at this Office on the 18th instant, and stated that his Government had beard that you were opposing the signature of the Final Agree- ment for the Tien-tsin-Yang-taze Railway unless that for the Suchow-Ningpo line were signed at the same time. The German Government understood that, whereas the negotiations for the former line were practically concluded and the Chinese were ready to sign an Agreement, the negotiations for the Suchow-Ningpo line were still in an early stage only, and that unless the Tien-tsin-Yang-tsze Agreement were signed shortly, there was a risk that the Chinese might change their minds, and that the fruits of many months' negotiation might be jeopardised. His Excellency added that he believed that the British Syndicate, who were interested in the undertaking in conjunction with the German Syndicate, were entirely of this opinion.
Count Metternich was informed in reply that he had not misunderstood the views of the British Syndicate, but it was pointed out to him that it had already been explained to the German Government that His Majesty's Government, while most anxious for the success of the Anglo-German negotiations, could support them only in so far as they did not endanger the realization of the purely British Suchow-Ningpo Railway enterprise; that you had consequently from the outset insisted that the Agree- ment as to the latter railway should be signed before, or at the same time as that for the Tien-tsin-Yang-tsze line; that so far from the negotiations for the Suchow-Ningpo line's being in a preliminary stage only, it had been settled that the draft for the Suchow- Ningpo Railway Agreement should, mutatis mutandis, be copied from the Tien-tsin- Yang-tsze Railway Agreement, and be identical with it; and that you feared that, if this course were not maintained, you would be parting with the only lever which you possessed for securing the conclusion of the Suchow-Ningpo Agreement, the signature of which might then be indefinitely delayed. For these reasons His Majesty's Government thought that things must be left as they were for the moment, though they were most anxious, Count Metternich was again assured, to see both negotiations brought to a speedy conclusion.
&e,
I am,
(Signed)
F. A. CAMPBELL.
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