A : wik mi 152 reference to, and the knowledge of, this Government.
A (c.) This Government, it appears to me, has reasonable grounds for complaint in that an arrangement of such importance was made without its knowledge and concurrence. The arrangement clearly had a money value since it was made the means of obtaining privileges elsewhere. Meanwhile this Government had more than once to complain of attempts by the Chinese Official in charge of the telegraphs (who was practically a Government nominee) to acquire a position outside the scope of his duties, and to interfere in political matters. It also lost what might have been a valuable source of Revenue had a royalty been imposed on telegrams transmitted over the lines in British Territory or a lease of the privilege been sold.
(a.) These conditions existed, however, until the Chinese Government took steps to nationalise its telegraphs, and to compulsorily expropriate the shareholders in the Chinese Company. It was this action on the part of the Chinese Government which first directed my attention to the matter, for anomalous as the previous conditions were, they would become still more so if the portion of the line operated by the Company in British Territory and the rights it had acquired from the Eastern Extension