[This Document is the Property of His Britanie Majesty's Government.
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[3849]
(No. 46.) Sir,
6761
REC
(REG: 25 E 094
[January 29.]
SECTION 1.
No. 1.
Sir F. Bertie to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received January 29.)
Paris, January 27, 1909.
I HAVE the honour to inform you, with reference to your telegram No. 43 of the 24th instant, that as soon as I found means of communicating with Mr. Addis I asked him to call at the Embassy, in order to communicate to him the substance of Sir J. Jordan's telegram of the 23rd January containing his views respecting the proposed Mr. Addis had arrangement with regard to the Hankow-Canton Railway Loan. already had one interview with the representatives of the French group interested in the loan, but no definite settlement had, he said, been come to; he understood, however, that no objections would be raised by them to the participation of the Germau group in the loan. There was to be another meeting in the afternoon, and he was to see the Minister of Finance later on. I asked him to call again and inform me of the result of his interviews.
The following day Mr. Addis told me that he and the French group had come to a full agreement in regard to the following three points, with a reservation on his part that it must be subject to the approval of the Foreign Office in London, namely: (1) no objection would be made to the participation of the German group in the loan as regards finance; (2) the preferential rights of the British group to supply material and appoint engineers for the railway were not disputed; (3) the proposal that the Belgians should be offered a part of the British share of the loan would not be pressed.
Mr. Addis stated that he had found M. Caillaux, whom he had seen the evening before, quite prepared to accept points (2) and (3), but strongly opposed to the admission of the German group. After some conversation he slightly weakened in his opposition, but had said that he must consult M. Pichon and other Ministers before giving a definite answer, and he begged Mr. Addis therefore to defer his departure for Berlin. (See my telegram No. 19 of the 26th January.) Mr. Addis also had an interview with the Head of the Colonial Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who saw him on behalf of M. Pichon. M. Berthelot stated that the question of German participation was still under discussion, but gave Mr. Addis to understand that it was improbable that the French Government would consent to it.
This morning Mr. Addis called again at the Embassy on his way to the station in order to tell me that the French Governmant had definitely refused to allow the German group to share in the loan. M. Caillaux had declared that he was perfectly willing to enter into negotiations with the object of arriving at an agreement under which all loans made to China should in the future be shared by England, France, and Germany. Such an agreement, however, remained to be arranged, and pending such an arrangement he would not consent to the participation of the Germans in this particular loan.
In reply to a question as to what Mr. Addis intended to do in Berlin, he said he would inform the German group of what had taken place, and would endeavour to persuade them not to make difficulties in China for the English and French groups in regard to this loan, He would point out that the amount involved in the present instance was comparatively unimportant, and that, should they adopt a hostile and obstructive attitude, the conclusion of the agreement suggested by M. Caillaux would be rendered difficult if not impossible. Mr. Addis added that of course any negotiations with such an object were entirely outside his sphere of action.
I have, &c. (Signed) FRANCIS BERTIE.
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