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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.j
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[June 14.]
C.O. 22029
SECTION 1.
REC
[22451]
No
Wee 2 JUL 09
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 109.) (Telegraphic.) P.
Foreign Office, June 14, 1909. HANKOW-SZECHUAN Railway. Please see my immediately preceding
telegram.
On the 10th June the United States Ambassador told me that in the view of his Government it was not within our power to fix the time when American rights would lapse if they took no action. I replied that we made no such claim; our people had, however, given the Americans fair notice, and did not think that they had any choice but to make the agreement they had made.
The Ambassador, while admitting that it was unfortunate that the United States Government had let pass our notice in silence, still held that the American rights had not lapsed. In the present unsatisfactory state of affairs in China, the United States Government thought it extremely undesirable that the Chinese should be in a position to play one country off against another, and considered that a combination should be formed of England, France, Germany, and America, which should act together. In commenting upon the resources and the power of the American group the Ambassador, I think, implied, though he did not say, that its competition might be as damaging as its co-operation might be a source of strength. The United States Government held this general view. With regard to the Hankow-Szechuan line, arrangements, as he understood, had been made only for the Hupei section, and the American group might have a share in the extension. I told him that the three groups had come to a joint arrangement covering the whole line. I said that the United States views and proposals must be adjusted by the financial groups interested, and asked him to let me have them in writing.
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