[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
470
$350
[March 5.]
P4 MPR 10 SECTION 6.
[7607]
(No. 18.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 5.)
Peking, January 11, 1910. WITH reference to my telegrams Nos. 179 and 190 of the 7th November last and the 2nd ultimo respectively, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's consul at Wuhu respecting the Anhui Railway Company, which confirms the report that the directors of the company have resolved to raise a foreign loan for the construction of the line.
I have, &c.
Enclosure in No. 1.
J. N. JORDAN.
{
(No. 44.) Sir,
Consul For to Sir J. Jordan,
Wuhu, December 30, 1909. I HAVE the honour to report that Mr. H. Berents, chief engineer of the Anhui Railway Company, left Wuhu on the 17th instant on a surveying tour through the northern part of this province.
Mr. Berents has instructions from the directors of the company to survey a line from Wuhu to Lu Chou-fu viâ Yün Tsao and Chao Hsien; thence to Ying Chou, in the north-west corner of the province, vià Liuan Chou and Cheng Yang Kuan, and across the Honan border to Chou Chia Kou. He is then to return to Lu Chon-fu, and mark out a line from that place to Pu Kou, opposite Nanking. The main idea of the survey evidently is to link up the proposed Anhui lines with the Peking-Hankow and Tientsin-Pu Kou railway systems. Connection with the Chekiang railway system is arranged for by means of the Wahu-Kuang Tè Chou line, now in course of construction.
Mr. Berents, who expects to spend two and a-half months on his journey, informed me before he left that the directors, after hesitating for some months with regard to this new survey, ordered him away at three days' notice, and he attributes this sudden decision on their part to the revival of negotiations for a foreign loan. The directors of the Anhui Railway Company, unwilling to admit their inability to construct the first section of the Wuhu-Kuang Tê Chou line with the funds at their disposal, now practically exhausted, are, thinks Mr. Berents, endeavouring to find a way out of the impasse in which they find themselves by borrowing money for the extension of the original line in the directions which I have indicated above. money will, however, actually be devoted to the completion of the Wu-Kuang line, work on which has been at a standstill for the last four months.
This
My telegram to you of the 1st December was based on information supplied to me by Mr. Berents, who had heard on good authority that the Anhui gentry had at last withdrawn their opposition to a foreign loan for the construction of the provincial railways, this decision having been come to at a meeting of shareholders held at Anking on or about the 23rd November last.
The present condition of the Wu-Kuang line, which has now been over three years and a-half under construction, is briefly as follows:-
Section 1. Wuhu to Wan Chih, 20 miles; embankment completed for 3 miles; partially completed for about 10 miles. Bridge over Wuhu Creek at mile 2 erected; bridge at Wan Chih ready for erection.
Section 2. Wan Chih to Ningkuo-fu, 20 miles; road pegged out; construction of embankment commenced in places.
Section 3. Ningkuo-fu to Kuang Tê Chou, 80 miles; road surveyed only.
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