811
5. Two officers of the Hong Kong Public Works Department leave this Colony on the 16th instant to travel across China, and will visit Changsha on their way. They will travel thence to Chungking, making as full a survey of the country as possible, with a view to railway construction. So soon as I receive the results of their surveys, I will send a copy to your Excellency.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
F. D. LUGARD.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
23756
JUL 08
[June 18.]
SECTION 1.
[20817]
No. 1.
(Confidential.) Sir,
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir F. Lugard.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's despatch of the 9th instant regarding the suggestion of Mr. Clementi that the country between Chungking and Changsha should be examined with a view to railway construction, and informing me of the departure of two officers of the Hong Kong Public Works Department on a journey along this route.
During my recent visit to Hankow, I informed His Majesty's Consul-General confidentially of this project. Mr. Fraser was inclined to consider that the prospects of finding a practicable alignment through those parts were small. The country, moreover, was poor, and had been traversed recently by British officers.
Your Excellency will find these views borne out in the "Military Report on the Province of Szechuan," Simla, 1903, p. 11, where a map prepared by Captain C. G. W. Hunter, R.E., marks as impracticable for railway construction the route from Yochow to Chenchou and thence to Fuchou on the Yang-tsze below Chungking.
On p. 14 of the same Report the opinion is expressed that "there appears small chance of a practicable railway route being found along this (the south) bank of the Yang-tsze.
With regard to paragraph 4 of your Excellency's despatch, it should be observed that no Concession has been granted to foreign capitalists for railway construction between Hankow and Szechuan, though an engagement exists to borrow money from Great Britain if foreign capital is required for the undertaking.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN,
(No. 95.)
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
(Telegraphic.) P.
Foreign Office, June 18, 1908. PLEASE refer to your telegram No. 122 of the 16th instant on the subject of the French demand for the extension to Hsian-fu of the Chengting-Taiyuan-fu Railway.
You might point out to the French Minister unofficially, if you see no objection, that the chances of the Anglo-French Railway from Hankow into Szechuan might be adversely affected by this scheme,
I am making a suggestion in a similar sense to Sir F. Bertie.
[1814 -]
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