[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[2231]
No. 1.
364
[January 19.]
SECTION 3.
5712
FOR
of 21 FFR 1
Dear Sir Francis,
Mr. Addis to Foreign Office.-(Received January 19.)
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation,
31. Lombard Street, London, January 19, 1911.
It may interest
I ENCLOSE a copy of Hillier's last letter of the 31st December. you to read his comments on the Hukuang negotiations.
It is a relief to know that the Chinese have given a categorical assurance that the principle of the initialled agreement is not to be interfered with.
With regard to the last paragraph of Hillier's letter, it is not true that the four groups offered the Russians participation in the Ilukuang loan.
Yours truly,
C. S. ADDIS.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Mr. Hillier to Mr. Addis.
My dear Addis,
Peking, December 31, 1910.
I HAVE your letter of the 8th instant. Hakuang Railways.-The interview of the four foreign Ministers with the the Wai-wu Pu, referred to in my last letter as fixed for the 27th instant, duly took place. The Board was represented by its president, Na-tung, and he appears to have had an exceedingly disagreeable time. Driven from point to point, a promise was at at last extracted from him that the Yu-chuan Pu should be instructed to proceed at once with the negotiations for the completion of the agreement, and he gave the further spontaneous assurance that any alterations to be introduced should be merely minor and verbal ones, and should not affect the principles of the agreement. Na-tung's only trump card was the announcement that the representatives of the groups had actually been summoned to a conference with the Yu-chuan Pu on the 29th instant. The move was too transparent, as the letter of the Yu-chuan Pu to us was only sent out the evening before the interview of the Ministers, and we had not in fact received it.
However, there is no doubt that the timely action of the Ministers has had a very salutary effect, and has stirred the departments responsible into unwonted activity. Amongst others, our unscrupulous friend, Liang Shib-yi, has been particularly busy in trying to sow the seeds of dissension among the groups. His policy is to revive, if possible, the engineer question, which, as he knows perfectly well, hung up our inter- group negotiations for more than a year, and with this object he has been trying to persuade the French and Americans that they are being unfairly treated in this respect. Casenave would bare none of it, and told Liang that the French were perfectly content with existing arrangements. In Straight he found a more compliant listener, not that I believe he had any intention of being disloyal, but I feel pretty sure that a hint was given to him that American compliance over the Hukuang loan difficulties might assist them materially with their currency loan negotiations. Liang's conference with Straight ended in the former handing him, unofficially, a memorandum of the modifications and alterations which the Chinese wished to introduce into the Hukuang agreement. A translation of it is enclosed herewith, and it speaks itself; you will notice the proposal to appoint a Chinese chief engineer, with divisional engineers of the four nationalities under him-a peculiarly subtle suggestion designed to unsettle the minds of the French and Americans, and so revive the engineer question.
On the 29th instant we had our interview with the Yu-chuan Pů; copy of the minutes of the proceedings is enclosed herewith. We expected Liang's meniorandum to be produced, but it was not, although I have reason to suspect that the president had it in his hand. It had, of course, been handed to Straight prior to the Wai-wu Pu interview, and the attitude of the Ministers had been so strong that it was
[1855 (-3]