[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[46134]
No. 1.
[December 20.]
SECTION 1.
!
(No. 441.)
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 20.)
Sir,
Peking, November 30, 1909. WITH reference to my despatch No. 423 of the 16th instant, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow, reporting upon the progress of the provincial agitation against the railway loan negotiations,
This mischievous and ill-informed movement would appear to be gaining ground largely on account, of the ignorance in Chinese circles of the real conditions of the proposed loan.
Any action which may tend to educate public opinion to a true understanding of the situation is therefore of real service, and I have consequently approved the course taken by Mr. Fraser in communicating the terms of the loan agreement to the head of the Foreign Bureau.
I have, &c.
Inclosure in No. 1.
J. N. JORDAN.
58
(No. 68.) Sir,
Consul-General Fraser to Sir J. Jordan.
Hankow, November 22, 1909. IN continuation of my despatch No. 65 of the 12th instant, I have the honour to report that the public meeting of protest against railway loans held in Hankow on the 14th instant was, according to the native press, crowded and enthusiastic.
The delegates from Japan had widely circulated in pamphlet form the essay part of which formed the enclosure in my despatch above mentioned. Apart from the false loan terms quoted from a Japanese newspaper, these young men urged resistance to the loan on the ground that the Powers meditated the partition of China, and had no intention of letting China have any control over the lines built with borrowed money--their language and arguments resembling closely the harangues of the native press in 1899-1900, and of the agitators against the Shanghae-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway agreement.
The speakers at the meeting were mainly of the student class, but included members of the provincial council and the commercial associations, a soldier absent without leave, and a farmer. The list of subscribers for shares (payraent to be spread over five years) in the Hupei Commercial Railways Association was headed by 1,000,000 dollars from the provincial council, and less sums from the members for each prefecture; but there is a complete absence of the names of the leading native merchants.
The railway association has elected as president Lau Ilsin-Yuan, a taotai on sick leave, once acting provincial judge of Kiangsi, with two councillors as vice-presidents; and, as delegates to go to Peking, Wu Chao-Tai, the former head of the Wuchang Education Bureau, whom the scholars forced to retire; Mi Ch'ang-Ch'ih, retired magistrate of Chiang-Chou, in Shansi, and councillor for the Hsia-K'ou Ting; Chang Po-Lieb, one of the student delegates from Japan; and Chang Tz'u-Shan, the judicial deputy of the Hankow Association of Commerce.
The association claims that one of its promoters made a hasty trip to Peking, and was assured of the support of the boards concerned in case funds were really forthcoming.
I took the occasion of the head of the Foreign Affairs Bureau being sent by the Viceroy to return. Mr. Max Müller's call on his Excellency to enquire why the Govern- ment did not let the real conditions of the proposed loan be generally known, since the provincial Government admitted that the agitators could never obtain any considerable cash subscriptions towards railway construction. As Mr. Wu confessed that no one here, with the possible exception of the Educational Commissioner Kao, knew the
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