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the rumours that have of late been put in circulation, emanating sometimes from native newsmongers on the Yang-tsze, sometimes from Port Arthur or from Berlin, to the effect that Great Britain intends to follow the Russian lead, and is aiming at appropriating the Yang-tsze region, to the exclusion of French and German enterprise in particular.
I have, &c.
ERNEST SATOW.
No. 71.
(Signed)
65
Moreover, by the terms of the arrangement recently concluded with Prince Ch'ing British and American capital are to be associated in the construction of the Szechuan line, should China require the assistance of foreign capital.
The French are very desirous to obtain permission to construct the line from Paoting Fu to Tien-tsin which would give the Pehan line an invaluable outlet to the Gulf of Pechili, and there is good reason to suppose that they will oppose the construction of the Yencheng-Puk'ou line, as well as of the Szechuan line, until such time as an arrangement has been come to under which British opposition to their construction of the Paoting-Tien-tsin line would be withdrawn. It would not be desirable that the French should be given any share in the Szechuan line, but their opposition to its construction will probably be only overcome by making concessions as regards the Paoting-Tien-tsin line.
WALTER TOWNLEY.
(Signed)
(No. 376.) My Lord,
Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne.-(Received December 21.)
Peking, November 4, 1903. IN reply to your Lordship's despatch No. 261 of the 31st August last, I have the honour to transmit herewith a Memorandum by Mr. Townley containing some observations upon Mr. Hillier's letter of the 30th of June last to Sir Ewen Cameron reporting a conversation with M. Casenave, then First Secretary of the French Legation, upon the subject of the proposed railway to Szechuan.
Mr. Townley reported to your Lordship in his despatch No. 299 of the 12th August last that Prince Ch'ing had told him that he had refused a French application for permission to construct a railway from Ichang at the commencement of the rapids, some 400 miles higher up the Yang-tsze than Hankow, into Szechuan. My French colleague in the course of a recent conversation, told me that there was a French scheme on foot to make a railway from Cheng-tu to Wan-hsien, an important trade centre between Ichang and Chungking, above all the more important rapids.
I am not aware whether M. Dubail was alluding to the same application as that which Prince Ch'ing informed Mr. Townley he had refused. A railway that ended above the rapids and had all those serious obstacles to safe and rapid trade communication between its terminus and the navigable waters of the Yang-tsze, could offer but small commercial advantages in comparison with a through land line, such as that anticipated, by the valley of the Han River.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
ERNEST SATOW.
November 3, 1903.
No. 72.
Mr. Jamieson to the Marquess of Lansdowne.—(Received December 21.)
(No. 16.) My Lord,
Shanghae, November 16, 1903. I HAVE the honour to report that on the 12th instant M. Rouffart, representing the Belgian "Compagnie Générale des Chemins de Fer et Tramways," signed an Agree ment with Sheng Kungpao for the construction of a railway from K'ai-fêng fu, the capital of the province of Honan, to Ho-nan fu in the same province, with the option of extending the same to Hsi-an fu, the capital of the adjoining province of Shen-hsi. Work on the section from K'ai-fêng-fu to Ho-nan, 250 kiloms. long, is to commence six months after signature, and the whole completed within two years from the time the Pei-han line reaches the Yellow River-say from June, 1904.
The total amount of the loan in respect of construction is 90,000,000 fr., which may be increased, in the event of that sum being found insufficient, and the conditions of the agreement are similar to those of the Peking-Hankow Railway.
The latter line does not pass through K'ai-fêng, but that city will eventually be connected with Yen-chou, in Shangtung, through which place the Tien-tsin-Chinkiang trunk line runs, as Germany has received a conditional promise from the Chinese Government that, when the Tien-tsin-Chinkiang line is approaching completion, applications will be entertained for the construction of a line linking these two towns together.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. W. JAMIESON.
Inclosure in No. 71.
Memorandum by Mr. Townley.
THE information contained in Mr. Hillier's letter to Sir Ewen Cameron of the 30th June last, which formed an inclosure in Lord Lansdowne's despatch No. 261 of the 31st August last, was communicated to the Foreign Office in a semi-official letter to Mr. Campbell of the 2nd of July last.
From the fact that M. Dubail, the French Minister, spoke to me about an Anglo- French combine for the construction of railways in China at much the same time as M. Casenave addressed himself to Mr. Hillier, there would appear good reason to suppose that the latter was acting with the knowledge and approval of his Minister.
M. Casenave in the course of conversations last summer, frequently urged the necessity of England and France working together in Szechuan to the exclusion of any third party, more especially the Americans, whom he represented as having far- reaching schemes for capturing the trade of the province. Although advocating Anglo-French co-operation in Szechuan, he naively acknowledged one day that when he was in charge of the French Legation, he had worked hard to thwart the mining aspirations of the Yang-tsze Valley Syndicate in that province.
It is such co-operation as this which has caused the friction between the French and Belgian interests concerned in the construction of the Pehan line, the French endeavouring to take the entire management out of the hands of the Belgians. If the French and Belgians, who speak the same language and have many national characteristics in common cannot work together in harmony, it would appear unlikely that British and French co-operation would be more successful in railway construction.
No. 73.
Mr. Buchanan to the Marquess of Lansdowne.--(Received December 21.) (No. 255.) My Lord,
Berlin, December 12, 1903. I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that I have this day addressed a note, copy inclosed, to the Imperial Government in the terms of your Lordship's despatch No. 274 of the 9th instant.
Your Excellency,
I have, &c.
(Signed)
GEORGE W. BUCHANAN.
Inclosure in No. 73.
Mr. Buchanan to Baron von Richthofen.
Berlin, December 12, 1903. IN compliance with instructions which I have received from His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I have the honour to bring before your
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