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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
[B]
CHINA RAILWAYS,
со
28322
RECO [July 300E6°26 AUG 10
CONFIDENTIAL.
SECTION 1.
[27461]
Your Excellency,
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Whitelaw Reid.
Foreign Office, July 30, 1910. I HAVE been considering the enquiry, made by you on the 22nd instant of Sir F. Campbell, whether His Majesty's Government would support British capitalists, as the United States Government would support American capitalists, if the project for the construction of the Chinchow-Aigun Railway line were confined to the building of a line from Chinchow to Taonan-fu only.
I understand, however, that such a line would avowedly be constructed with a view to its extension later on. This being the case, it appears to me that the Russian and Japanese Governments are likely to consider themselves entitled to be consulted in regard to the project in the same way as they claimed to be consulted over the Chinchow-Aigun scheme.
As your Excellency is aware, I have been ready to welcome co-operation between British and American financiers in railway matters in China and the Far East generally, but I feel that, in the matter of a line such as that from Chinchow to Taonanfu, knowing that its prolongation is intended, it would be impossible for His Majesty's Government, after all that has passed in the matter of the Chinchow-Aigun project, to afford support to British financiers, unless regard were also taken of Russian and Japanese interests in the regions to which the prolongation would extend. As regards the former, we have to consider how far the spirit of our engagement with the Russian Government of 1899, by which we are bound not to support concessions for railways in China north of the Great Wall, may preclude His Majesty's Government from taking an active part in promoting this enterprise, if it is opposed by the Russian Government.
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I have, &c.
E. GREY.
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