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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
349
CHINA RAILWAYS.
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CONFIDENTIAL.
[45210]
CO 41443
[December 13
SECTION 1.
09
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 13.)
(No. 428. Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, November 19, 1909. IN my telegram No. 198 of the 7th November I had the honour to state that Lord ffrench and Mr. Straight had written to the Chinese Government for a definite decision regarding the proposed construction of a railway from Chinchow to Tsitsibar, and were waiting for a reply to their request. Nothing further has reached me since.
In a conversation, however, which I had a few days ago with Liang Tun-yen, he referred to this project and expressed his personal views on the subject.
He considered that the present state of the region scarcely justified the expenditure which the project would entail. The Chinese Government, he thought, ought in the first instance to encourage the emigration of settlers into this sparsely inhabited district, and then gradually provide railway facilities as the development of the country progressed. It seemed to him premature and an inversion of the order of things to construct trunk railways on the outskirts of the Empire while there were so many thickly-populated provinces with little or no railway communication. These views were not, however, shared by some other members of the Government, notably the Manchu Grand Secretary, Shih Hsü, who was a strong advocate of the Chinchow- Tsitsihar project.
The Japanese Minister, Liang ta-jen said, had given the Chinese Government to understand that the Japanese would view it as a friendly act if they were consulted before effect was given to such a project. Liang was opposed to grauating the Japanese any participation in the construction or working of the railway, as he thought the South Manchurian Railway gave them far too strong a hold upon Manchuria already, but, on the other hand, it seemed to him to savour of undue haste to start such a scheme so soon after the settlement of the Manchurian questions with Japan.
Liang alluded, in the course of the conversation, to Prince Ito's visit to Harbin and his meeting with the Russian Finance Minister there, which, he thought, had rightly been connected with the idea of purchasing the Harbin-Kuanch'engtzu section of the line from Russia. The Chinese Eastern Railway, with its expensive system of guards and corrupt administration, which was quite as bad as that of China, was placing a severe strain on Russian finances, and Russia, he thought, now that she had started the Amur line, would not be altogether unwilling to be relieved of the burden of the railway through Manchuria.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN,
[2538
N -1]
RC
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