55
C.O.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governm24967
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[23476]
No. 1.
Rece
28 JUL
[June 22.]
SECTION 2.
Dear Sir Francis,
Mr. C. S. Addis to Foreign Office.-(Received June 22.)
Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank, 31, Lombard Street, London, June 22, 1909.
I ENCLOSE a memorandum of our interview yesterday, which I have handed to the B. and C. and C. and C. They may thus be said to have endorsed the views which I expressed as to the attitude we ought to adopt towards the Americans,
Yours truly,
C. S. ADDIS.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Memorandum by Mr. C. S. Addis respecting the Hankow-Szechuen Railway.
THE AMERICAN claim to a share in this enterprise is identical with the English claim. It is founded upon the same document, namely, Chang's 1903 letter to Satow.
England insists upon China's fulfilment of her undertaking so far as England is concerned. Is it good policy then to look with indifference on China's violation of the undertaking as regards America? I think not. We ought not to acquiesce in the evasion of any Chinese obligation to a third party which we would wish to enforce if due to ourselves.
It is argued that China has been freed from her obligation by the procrastination of America. It does not lie with us to press that argument. We would not have admitted it in the case of the Shanghae-Nanking or Tien-tsin-Pukow railway agreements. Germany appears only too ready to curry favour with America. It would be a pity to let Count Bernstorff, the German Minister at Washington, play at "Codlin's the friend, not Short."
Mr. Bryce, the British Ambassador to the United States, wired yesterday that the American Secretary of State had authorized him to say that, if assured that "arrange- ments" would be made for American participation "on the same footing" as the other groups, then the United States Government would "waive their protest" vis-à-vis the Chinese.
This is a little vague, but logically the American claim is limited by the Hankow- Szechuen undertaking, and extends to the whole of the line and not merely to the first section of it.
The "arrangement" referred to must mean an arrangement between the, not with the Chinese Government, otherwise the offer to "waive their protest" would be groups and meaningless.
We have suggested to the Foreign Office to reply to Washington that the British group are under certain obligations to the French and German in this matter, but that, so far as they (the British group) are concerned, they have no objection to American participation in the Hankow-Szechuen Railway project and would be prepared to discuss the terms of entry with the representatives of the American group as soon as the latter have been appointed.
We cannot come to an arrangement until we know the persons with whom we have to deal.
It is hoped that the above telegram may draw the Americans and induce them
to define their claim,
As regards the future, there is something to be said for the American alliance from the point of view of security. It would be difficult in case of default to enforce the shadowy loan guarantees which are all that are left to us of the early mortgages, &c. The pressure of American diplomacy, over and above that of England, France, and Germany, would increase the security of China loans by 1 or 2 per cent.
C. S. ADDIS.
June 21, 1909.
[2317 y-2]