[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Gove..
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL
[35516]
No. 1.
447
40647
RECE [October 29] NOV 07
SECTION 2.
Sir F. Lascelles to Sir Edward Grey. – (Received October 28.)
Berlin, October 23, 1907.
(No. 470 a.) Sir,
I HAVE the honour to report that the new Chinese Minister, San Pao Ki, has arrived in Berlin, and that he was received in audience by the Emperor on the 21st instant for the purpose of presenting his letters of credence. In this connection the Tägliche Rundschau" announces that the Wai-wu Pu has instructed the Minister to request the Imperial Foreign Office, "in view of the excellent relations existing between Germany and China," to give back to China the German Concession of the railway from Kiao-chau to Itschou (a distance of 190 kilom.), which is to be built in connection with the Tien-tsin Chingkiang line. The request was apparently not supported by a sufficient offer of compensation, and has, according to the journal, been refused.
At the same time the "Frankfurter Zeitung "learns that the Tien-tsin-Chingkiang line is soon to be commenced, the Anglo-German Concession being modified to the extent that China will undertake the actual construction of the railway with material supplied by England and Germany for their respective parts; the financing to be effected by a 5 per Cent. Chinese State Loan which will be floated in England and Germany at the same time.
I have, &c. (Signed)
FRANK C. LASCELLES.
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