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[This Bocument is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C.O. 11287
CHINA RAILWAYS.
[March 10.]
RECR
CONFIDENTIAL.
Reo | APR OC
SEATION 2.
[9257]
No. 1.
Sir,
Messrs. Pauling and Co. to Foreign Office.-(Received March 10.)
26, Victoria Street, Westminster, London,
March 9, 1909. WE have the honour to bring to your notice what has happened to our firm in connection with the Canton-Hankow Railway construction scheme. During December the Viceroy of Hankow (Chang Chih Tung) made several requests to Lord ffrench, our representative, that we should immediately dispatch engineers to survey and estimate for the construction of a 400-mile section of the Canton-Hankow line. The Viceroy informed Lord ffrench that if we wished for the work the engineers must be sent at once, and that, as the Chinese did not wish for a detailed survey, they would only require us to furnish them with a lump-sum price within which we would undertake to complete and equip the line. Both Lord ffrench and Mr. Bland cabled to us in urgent terms to comply with the Viceroy's demand. We acted as requested by the Chinese authorities, and our two engineers, with complete camp and equipment, have been working on the line for the last six weeks, and are still engaged. We now learn from Lord french that a German bank has concluded a loan with the Chinese Government for the construction of this same line, which is now to be undertaken departmentally by the Chinese authorities. Under these circumstances, we venture to beg for your prompt and effectual aid in support of compensation for all the expense, time, trouble, and efforts that have now been apparently entirely wasted, and we suggest that a reasonable form of compensation would be that the Chinese Government grant us a lump-sum contract for the construction of 150 miles of the 400 miles to be now constructed of the Canton-Hankow line.
We are in a position to make this offer at once, as our engineers have cabled us all the requisite information, and we have some grounds for believing, from informa- tion cabled from Peking, that if this demand on our part is supported by our Government it may be granted. We therefore desire to ask whether you will be good enough to cause instructions to be cabled to the British Minister to support this form of compensation to our firm, in order that we may at once communicate the fact to Lord ffrench.
We have, &c.
(Pauling and Co. (Limited) ),
(Signed) JNO. SCOTT, Secretary.
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