[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C. O
449
6761
[February 1.]
RECE
REG 26 09
SECTION 1.
[4230]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received February 1.)
(No. 19.) Sir,
Peking, January 12, 1909. THE attitude adopted by the Grand Secretary, Na-tung, as reported in my despatch No. 473 of the 24th October, 1908, when I laid before the Chinese Govern- ment our proposals for railway construction in Yunnan, is reflected in the language recently used by the Governor-General of Yunnan in conversation with His Majesty's Acting Consul-General.
As Mr. Wilton reports in his despatch, of which I have the honour to inclose a copy herewith, the Governor-General professed to apprehend active opposition from the gentry and people of Yunnan to any scheme of railway con- struction under foreign auspices. He seems, however, to have been impressed to a certain extent by the arguments presented to him, and I am instructing Mr. Wilton to bring the question before the Governor-General's notice whenever a suitable opportunity is available.
I have reverted to the matter at several interviews with the Wai-wn Pu, and bave always received an assurance that it was receiving careful consideration, but that great opposition was to be expected from the province, which was bent on keeping railway construction in its own hands.
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Acting Consul-General Wilton to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 49. Confidential.) Sir,
Yünnan-fu, December 11, 1908. I HAVE the honour to refer to your No. 12, Confidential, of the 2nd November, inclosing a statement of Burmah-Yünnan Railway proposals laid before the Chinese Government. I have the honour to report that on the 10th December I took the opportunity of a private interview with the Governor-General to sound him tentatively on the subject.
The Governor-General denied that the Wai-wu Pu had communicated any proposals for a Burmah-Yunnan Railway, but he admitted that he had lately received a telegram inquiring after the prospects of the Chinese Railway Company of Yunnan,
I told his Excellency, in substance, that His Majesty's Government regarded the engagement of 1902 as binding, and had no intention of abandoning their position in this respect, nor of modifying in principle the claims maintained since 1902, but were willing to leave their discussion in temporary abeyance in the hope of finding some practical solution of the question of railway communication between Burmah and China.
The Governor-General inquired the nature of the proposals which you had laid before the Chinese Government.
I explained that it was proposed that, in the first instance, a railway should be built from Kulikha on the Burmah-Yunnan frontier under some arrangement similar to that which had been adopted in the case of the Tien-tsin-Pukow line. The prolongation of this short line would doubtless follow.
The Governor-General took up the attitude that railway communication between Burmah and Yunnan would serve no useful purpose. The gentry and people of Yunnan would denounce him if he assented to a proposal of this description. The Chinese had had an object lesson in the French railway, which was, he understood, the worst constructed line in the world, and the most costly. Moreover, Yünnan had no money to build railways.
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