}
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Telegram from Foreign Office to Sir J. Jordan, No. 19
dated January 19th, 1909.
Railway Loan.
See my telegram No. 14 of the 15th instant.
The reply from Berlin to the Hongkong and Shang-
hai Bank is that the matter now being discussed, being
a provision of funds for railway purposes, and not a
Railway Concession proper, does not come within the
four corners of the Anglo-German Agreement of 1898, if
this latter is still considered to be in force.
The
Germans state that they will go their own way if they
are not allowed to participate in accordance with the
agreement of 1895 between the banks.
The Belgians meanwhile have informed the French
that the Chinese Government have approached them.
The French have suggested an arrangement by which the
Belgians should abandon the claims based upon the un-
redeemed bonds of the Canton-Hankow Railway and receive
in return fifteen per cent of the loan, half from the
French share and half from the British share, together
with
t