This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
RECD
127
[DecemB 143 JAN 08 542
SECTION 1
[40878]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received December 14.)
(No. 506.) Sir,
Peking, October 29, 1907, WITH reference to my despatch No. 245 of the 27th May, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch which I have received from Mr. Fox, Acting Consul-General at Chengtu, reporting the resignation of the Szechuanese President and Vice-President of the native Ch'uau Han Railway Company, and also of the Director of the Icbang office.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN,
(No. 49.) Sir,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Acting Consul-General Fox to Sir J. Jordan.
Chengtu, September 24, 1907. ON the 14th Septeraber the Chengtu "Daily Gazette" published a long letter from Taotai Fei Tao Shun, Director of the Chuan Han Railway office at Ichang, to the Acting Viceroy, requesting permission to resign his post on the grounds of physical exhaustion, brought about by the journeys he had undertaken and the services he had performed on behalf of the Railway Company.
On the following day appeared a letter from Mr. Hu Chün, Vice-President of the Company, tendering his resignation of his post, also on the ground of ill-health. I have the honour to inclose copy and translation of this letter.*
While I believe it is a fact that Mr. Hu Chün has suffered from dysentery during the past summer, and while it is quite possible that Fei Taotai's condition may be such as he describes, it is significant that the decision of both to relinquish their posts should coincide with the resignation of their fellow-provincial, Ch'iao Shu Nan, the President of the Company, on the score of pressure of work in the Board of Education in Peking.
The general opinion appears to be that railway matters have again reached a deadlock, and that these representatives of the Szechuan gentry have resigned us a protest against the interference in railway matters which the officials, on the one hand, and the Szechuanese students in Japan, on the other, continue to exercise.
It may be, also, that the gentry are beginning to realize the unpleasant fact that without foreign assistance the railway can never be constructed, and that therefore their leaders are withdrawing temporarily from the control of the Company in order that they may not incur the odium of being the first to suggest so unpopular a
course.
It is, I think, not unlikely that the non-arrival of Viceroy Chao Erh-hsün, whose appointment was received with general satisfaction, and the uncertainty which prevails regarding his successor's policy and movements--the latest news is that his Excellency Ch'en K'uei Lung will not take up his post until next year-have contributed in some degree to the present deadlock. As long as the province remains without a substantive Viceroy there seems small likelihood of this unfortunate railway making any headway. A foreign loan is inevitable; but it is not to be expected that the present Acting Viceroy, energetic and capable as he is, would be willing to embark upon a policy and incur responsibilities which might be repudiated by his successor.
It is most difficult to arrive at the true facts of the situation; the railway is the one topic which the Chinese authorities, from the Viceroy downwards, refuse to
* Not printed.
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