C.O
40792
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majestys Government.
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[43578]
No. 1.
RELE Rest 17 C 09
[November 29.]
SECTION 1.
316
(No. 405.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received November 29.)
Peking, November 7, 1909. ON receipt of your despatch No. 276 of the 18th September last, I asked the agent-general of the Peking Syndicate to furnish me with a statement of the position of their railway line in Honan, which was taken over by the Chinese Government in 1905.
From Mr. Brazier's report, copy of which I have the honour to enclose, you will perceive that the net loss to the Chinese Government from the 1st July, 1905, to the 30th June, 1909, amounts to some 86,000l., but that the loss on the working might well be converted into a profit if the line were connected with the railway which runs from Tien-tsin to Pukow.
I have, &c.
Inclosure in No. 1.
J. N. JORDAN.
Your Excellency,
Mr. Brazier to Sir J. Jordun.
Tien-tsin, November 4, 1909. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your communication dated the 13th ultimo, asking to be furnished with any information available as to the working of the Tao-Ching Railway in Honan, originally built, under Governmental permission granted in 1902, by the Peking Syndicate (Limited), and afterwards taken over by the Imperial Chinese Railway Department in 1905 in terms of a loan agreement dated at Peking the 3rd July, 1905, and signed by his Excellency Shông Hsuan-huai, Director-General of Chinese Railways, and George Jamieson, Esq., C.M.G., agent-general, Peking Syndicate (Limited).
Under this agreement the Peking Syndicate (Limited) is appointed to manage and administer the line on behalf of the Chinese Railway Administration during the continuance of the loan agreement, and it is in virtue of this position of the syndicate vis-a-vis the railway that I, as agent-general, have access to the books and figures of the railway. The information, therefore, which I have the honour of giving your Excellency is, as it were, trust property, and I beg for it more or less confidential
treatment.
The figures referred to are as follows :-
July 1, 1905, to June 30, 1909:
Receipts-
Passengers
Goods..
II.P. H.P.
FLP. H.P.
Taels.*
Taels."
134,516-27
590,292-59
Deduct
Sundry receipts..
Total gross receipts
Working expenses-
Permanent way works Locomotive power
Traffic expenses ..
Carriage and waggon
General charges..
Total working expenses
2,451.65
780,260 51
160,203-97
156,484 90
44,149.36
59,632.60
208,628-68
629,099-49
Balance of receipts over working expenses at June 30, 1909..
101,161.02
*
Hong-ping Hwa Pao (Tien-tsin taels).
[2486 -1]