Encl. in Sir John Jordan's No. 475 of the 25 Oct. 1908,
H.M.Minister to F.M.Consul General, Hankow DEC 12 1900
PEKING, 20 October 1908.
My dear Fraser,
Many thanks for yours of October 12th.
I am afraid I have been rather remiss in answering your various communications about Chang's overtures for a loan, but they have all been read with great interest and copies sent to the Foreign Office. You have not interfered in any way with our plans here and I look upon it as a decided gain that Chang, by applying to you direct, has confirmed his obligations to us under the agreement of 1905.
But there is no possibility of gratifying his desire for money just at present and it may perhaps be just as well that he should be kept waiting a little as the easy terms on which the last loan was raised for the redemption/repurchase of a paying concern are not likely to be repeated in raising funds for fresh construction. There was not, so far as we know, any idea of including Chang's projected loan in the one signed on the 8th instant, and the "suggestion", if it was even made, must, I think, have emanated from Chang himself. However, Bland is due here on the 2nd November and Chang's suspense will not be of long duration.
Bourne has the first claim for any appointment that may be offering and you were quite right to mention his name although I hope Chang will relent in his intention to supersede Moore. Bourne might be usefully employed later on, either for the Szechuan line, or for the Hunan section of the Hankow-Canton one.
Somehow I feel that we have turned the corner in the Hankow-Canton negotiations and that you will see your work of 1905 completed within a measurable distance of time. Many thanks for the memorandum re taxation of Post Offices at Canton which was very useful.
Yours sincerely,
Sd/
J.N. Jordan.