[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government (
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
306
920
[December 18. JAN 08
SECTION 2.
[40857]
Sir,
No. 1.
British and Chinese Corporation to Foreign Office.-(Received December 13.)
22, Abchurch Lane, London, December 13, 1907.
for you WE beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of and to thank
letter of your the 11th instant, and we note that His Majesty's Minister at Peking has in effect been instructed, by direction of Sir E. Grey, that it is left to his discretion whether to continue to insist upon the simultaneous signature of the Tien-tsin-Yang-tsze Railway Loan Agreement and the Soochow-Ningpo Railway Loan Agreement, or whether to agree to the prior and immediate signature of the Tien-tsin-Yang-tsze Railway Agreement on the understanding that the Soochow-Ningpo Railway Final Agreement shall be signed within a reasonable time, and that its terms shall not be less favourable than those for the Tien-tsin-Yang-tszo Railway.
The Board of the Corporation earnestly hope that Sir John Jordan may decide to maintain his demand for the simultaneous signature of the Agreements, as they share the view expressed by Mr. Addis, and quoted in your letter, that abandonment of the demand (which has been made an essential feature of the negotiations) will prove fatal to the conclusion of the Soochow-Ningpo Agreement.
In order to secure simultaneous signature of both Agreements on similar lines, the Corporation has, in common with the German Syndicate and Chinese Central Railways (Limited), surrendered the bulk of the benefits to which it was entitled under the Preliminary Agreement, and the conviction of the Board of the Corporation is that, if the Tien-tsin-Yang-tsze Railway Agreement be signed while the signature of the Soochow-Ningpo Railway Agreement is postponed without any adequate consideration therefor, it will so encourage and intensify the provincial opposition that the Chinese Government will be placed in a position of such difficulty as to be compelled to yield to the opposition.
We are, &c.
Per the British and Chinese Corporation (Limited),
(Signed) W. KESWICK, Chairman.
[2768 n-2
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