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34965
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
REC
Rect 25 OCT 09
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(35885]
No. 1.
[September 27.]
SECTION 3.
Sir J. Jordan tv Sir Edward Grey.--(Received September 27.)
(No. 317. Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, September 6, 1909. SOME months ago Mr. Gresson, the representative of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co. at Hong Kong, mentioned to me during a visit he paid to Peking that the British and Chinese Corporation had some reason to suspect the integrity of Mr. Butler Wright, the chief accountant of the Canton-Kowloon Railway. Mr. Wright appeared to be living beyond his means, and his proccedings generally were causing the corporation some anxiety, but there was nothing definite on which any action could be based,
I earnestly impressed upon Mr. Gresson the importance of exercising the greatest vigilance, as any irregularities could not fail to have disastrous results.
I heard nothing further of the matter until the 10th August last, when I received from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton a despatch, copy of which I have the honour to transmit to you herewith. In this Mr. Fox animadverted severely upon Mr. Wright's unseemly conduct, and urged the necessity of having his accounts audited at the earliest possible opportunity. I sent for Mr. Hillier, the agent of the corporation, the same day, and asked him to telegraph at once to the Hong Kong agents a request from me that an investigation of Mr. Butler Wright's accounts should be immediately held. This Mr. Hillier lost no time in doing, and His Majesty's consul-general at Canton was informed by telegraph of the action that
had been taken.
Yesterday I received a telegram from Mr. Fox stating that at the request of the British and Chinese Corporation he had issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Butler Wright on a charge of embezzling sums amounting to over 50,000 dollars. It seems that Mr. Wright had left Canton ostensibly for Japan on the 2nd instant, and had not been arrested at the time Mr. Fox telegraphed.
The incident is a deplorable one, and cannot fail to reflect seriously upon British methods. Mr. Wright is a man of Eurasian extraction whose antecedents were not, I believe, above suspicion, and who ought apparently never to have been engaged in a position of such trust and responsibility. I am told that he and Mr. Pope, another Eurasian, who is now traffic manager of the Shanghae-Nanking line, were recom- mended to the corporation by Mr. Barry, and in neither case was the selection, in my opinion, one worthy of the British reputation in the Far East.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Acting Consul-General Fox to Sir J. Jordan
(No. 85. Confidential.) Sir,
Canton, July 30, 1909. IN continuation of my despatch No. 78, dated the 12th instant, on the subject of the recent disturbances on the Canton-Kowloon Railway, I have the honour to enclose copies of correspondence which has passed between Mr. Grove, the engineer-in-chief, and the managing director, Wei Han, regarding the situation at Shektan and Shekha, on the second section of the line.
On the receipt of the copy of Mr. Grove's letter, which forms Inclosure No. 2, I took the opportunity of a farewell visit paid me by the late Viceroy on the 24th instant to express to his Excellency my surprise that his orders with regard to the dispatch of soldiers to the disaffected districts had not been carried out, and I urged his Excellency to provide for the adequate protection of the line before he left Canton.
The Viceroy promised to speak to the Acting Viceroy on the matter that day.
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