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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[10459]
(No. 90.) Sir,
C.O. 12195
[March 18.]
58
SECTION 1.
IREC
REGO APR OC No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 18.)
Peking, February 27, 1909. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 39 of the 6th instant, in which you inclose copies of correspondence with the Chinese Central Railways on the subject of the Pukow-Sinyang Railway, and instruct me to take such action in the matter as I may consider advisable.
The negotiations which are now preceeding for a loan for the construction of the Canton-Hankow Railway are monopolizing the attention of this Legation, and until they are concluded there is no hope of obtaining a consideration of the Pukow-Sinyang question.
As you point out in your reply to the Chinese Central Railways Company, the Chinese authorities are most reluctant to allow the materialization of any railway scheme involving definite control on the part of the concessionnaires, and no amount of 'strong pressure" will, I fear, secure "the fulfilment of the obligatious entered into by the preliminary Agreement of 1898."
C
All my efforts at present are directed towards preventing the Canton-Hankow negotiations from degenerating into a purely financial loan to China, and in this we have to reckon not only with the competition of foreigners, but also of our own countrymen, who are vying with each other in offering large sums of money to the Chinese Govern- ment for railway purposes. While Chinese credit stands so high in Europe, it can scarcely be expected that the Government here will care to resist the strong public outery in the country against foreign control of railways in any shape or form, and their present intention seems to be to make railway construction a purely financial undertaking. It is admitted theoretically that this cannot be done consistently with the maintenance of existing engagements, but the difficulty of obtaining in practice the fulfilment of engagements entered into years ago under totally different conditions is one which can hardly be fully appreciated at a distance.
Mr. Bland, whom I have consulted, seems to think that compensation may furnish an ultimate solution of the question, but I see no inclination on the part of the Chinese to follow the precedent of the Peking Syndicate's case in Shansi, which is loudly condemned by the present Wai-wu Pu. The compromise which was suggested by the Chinese Central Railways themselves in connection with the Hankow-Szechuan line seems to me more likely to commend itself to the Chinese Government.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
[2193 s−1]
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