4
Continuation of construction of uncompleted lines and surveys of branch lines. Construction of various telegraph lines, including one in Thibet. Extension of telephones and electrical works.
Measures to be carried out in 1915-16.
Repayment of Tao ch'ing Railway loan.
Continuation of Szechuan-Hankow and other lines. Compilation of reports and maps of all railways in China. Construction of telegraph lines in Mongolia and elsewhere. Extension and improvement of telephone system.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.24967
CHINA RAILWAYS,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[24097]
No. 1.
76
C.O.
RESP
REP 26 JUL 09.
[June 28.]
SECTION 5.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received June 28.)
(No. 212. Very Confidential.)
Sir,
Peking, June 8, 1909. FROM the telegraphic correspondence which has passed between us you are already aware of the difficulties which occurred with regard to the insertion of the name of the British and Chinese Corporation in the Hukuang Railway Agreement, and of the solution which was eventually reached. That solution was embodied in an exchange of letters between Mr. Hillier and the Chinese delegates, copies of which are enclosed herewith.
It became apparent some days before the agreement was concluded that Chang Chih-tung would in no case agree to the British and Chinese Corporation being mentioned in the agreement as agents for the purchase of material. So far as could be gathered, his objections were of a twofold nature, partly personal against Mr. Bland as the agent of the corporation, and partly against the corporation itself as an institution with which he had had dealings of an unsatisfactory nature. The corporation on the 6th March last rejected his formal offer of Tien-tsin-Pukow terms, and he had then entered into negotiations with the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank, which had resulted in the present agreement. Under pressure of British protests he had been obliged to grant the bank a very material modification of the Tien-tsin-Pukow terms, but he was unwilling that the corporation should benefit by this concession, and have the satisfaction of having brought him to accept their own terms. He was apparently disposed to waive his objections if the corporation got rid of its agent in China and allowed itself to be nominated by the bank later on as agents for the purchase of materials under a new name, but even this he would not definitely promise.
Realising the loss of prestige which, as your telegrams clearly showed, the situation involved for the corporation, I decided to see Liang Tun-yen and ask him to use his influence in bringing the Grand Secretary to a more reasonable frame of mind. My first interview on the 4th June having failed to produce the desired effect, I saw him again on the following day, and made a further strong appeal to him to prevent such a deplorable contingency as the exclusion of the corporation from the business.
After some telephonic communication with the delegates it was finally arranged that an exchange of letters of assurance should take place between Mr. Hillier and the delegates, the terms and wording of which were to be fixed at a meeting to be held the same evening.
The delegates, it will be seen, insisted on an explicit assurance that Mr. Bland would cease to represent the corporation and would have nothing to do with the present business, and on this understanding they agreed, on behalf of Chang, that the latter would accept the bank's nomination of the British and Chinese Corporation as the agents for the purchase of materials under the 18th article of the loan agreement. Chang himself, it may be mentioned, dictated the terms of this arrangement, and showed a strong personal bias agains. Mr. Bland.
It was a clear case of either sacrificing Mr. Bland or the interests of the corporation, and your instructions left me in no doubt as to which of the two alternatives we should accept.
I have, &c.
[2317 ee---5]
J. N. JORDAN.