This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[11450]
No. 1.
0.
[April 4.]
14055
388 20 APR 08
SECTION 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey,--(Received April 4.)
(No. 85.) Sir,
Peking, February 18, 1908. WITH reference to my despatch No. 58 of the 3rd February, I have the honour to report that, as a result of further negotiations between Mr. Bland and the representatives of the Wai-wu Pu and Board of Communications, the latter reconsidered several of their proposals in regard to the Chekiang Railway loan, and invited Mr. Bland to prepare a fresh draft of the Agreement upon lines which appeared to offer a reasonable prospect of settlement.
The principal conditions of this draft were telegraphed to the British and Chinese Corporation in London by Mr. Bland on the 7th February, and, in reply to your telegram No. 28 of the 9th February, I telegraphed to you on the following day that the terms appeared to me to be the best obtainable under the circumstances, and that the proposed change in the route of the line seemed to be advantageous,
At an interview with the Ministers of the Wai-wu Pu on the 11th February, I urged them to allow no further delay, and was informed that the new draft was being translated into Chinese for their inspection.
In a further telegram to his Board on the 14th February, Mr. Bland was able to announce that an agreement had been practically reached on all essential points. In view of the decision of the Chinese to commute the Corporation's Commission on materials by a single payment of 35,000l., he recommended that further insistence on the question of auditing the railway accounts was unnecessary.
He has now received authority enabling him to conclude the Agreement, and I have impressed upon the Wai-wu Pu to-day that no further concessions or alterations of any kind must be demanded, since the conditions already differ considerably from those granted in the Tien-tsin-Pukow Agreement.
The press meanwhile continues to attack the Government on the subject of this loan, though in a less anti-British spirit than heretofore, as will be seen from the inclosed despatch on the subject from His Majesty's Consul at Wuhu.
In regard to the proposed boycott, the despatch which I have the honour to inclose from His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae will also serve to show that the Viceroy at Nanking is conscious of his responsibilities, and that he has now taken steps to prevent the growth of anti-British feeling in this matter.
J. N. JORDAN.
I have, &c. (Signed)
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul Goffe to Sir J. Jordan.
(Separate.) Sir,
Wuhu, January 31, 1908. THE "Shen Pao" on the 24th instant and two following days published a very interesting letter from Mr. Yang, one of the representatives of the two provinces sent to Peking to consult with the Government on the question of the Soochow-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway, addressed to the Anti-Loan Society at Hangchow, in which, probably for the first time, something approaching an impartial account of the negotiations on the loan question is given to the public. Its publication in a paper such as the "Shen Pao" should have considerable effect in counteracting the reports as to the unyielding and unreasonable attitude of the British authorities in this matter which have recently been so widely circulated in the native press.
Mr. Yang begins by blaming the weakness of the Tsung-li Yamên in acceding to Sir Claude MacDonald's "preposterous demand for the Concession for the five railways, and then criticizes them for allowing the negotiations for the Soochow-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway contract, which had been begun in Shanghae between Sheng and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., to become a diplomatic question
[2934 d-1]