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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINESE LOANS AND CONCESSIONS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[October 24.]
SECTION 3.
|F 3866/1621/10]
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No. 1.
Sir B. Alston to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston. (Received October 24.)
(No. 498.) My Lord,
Peking, August 31, 1921. WITH reference to my despatch No. 18, Overseas, of the 9th June, 1920, and to my telegram No. 297 of the 31st ultimo on the subject of the coal-mining agreement concluded by the Cassel syndicate with the Canton provincial authorities, I have the honour to report on the subsequent action taken to render the agreement effective, a consummation which I regret to say so far has been prevented by the continuance of internal disorder in this country.
My enquiry as to the British interest in the syndicate having been satisfactorily answered by the enclosed despatches from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton and the Governor of Hong Kong, and the latter having also confirmed that no obligations had been incurred by His Majesty's Government towards the claims of other
groups who had contemplated similar enterprises in Canton province, the way was open for affording support to the syndicate in accordance with the authorisation contained in your Lordship's telegram No. 236 of the 29th July, 1920.
Major Cassel and his Chinese associate were accordingly asked to come to Peking to assist in the negotiations for ratification of the agreement by the Central Government, but owing to the illness of the former they did not arrive until the end of September.
Major Cassel brought with him a supplementary agreement which he had signed with the Canton provincial authorities on the 2nd August, providing for ratification under article 2 of the original agreement by the latter immediately, instead of after the Central Government's approval lad been obtained, and extending the period allowed for prospecting and formation of the Anglo-Chinese Company from nine to fifteen months. The object of the conclusion of this supplementary agreement and the payment of the deposit of 100,000 dollars by the syndicate was to prevent the performance of the original agreement being indefinitely delayed by the postponement of political reunion between Peking and Canton, and so to allow the syndicate's engineers already engaged from England to proceed with the preliminary work of prospecting,
The regular procedure in the case of mining agreements with foreigners requires that the provincial authorities concerned should themselves report the agreement to the Central Government for ratification, and Mr. Clive accordingly instructed His Majesty's consul-general at Canton by telegraph to endeavour to secure compliance with this formality in order to facilitate the negotiations in Peking. Although the provincial Government promised to make the desired report, a fresh political upheaval took place before this promise could be fulfilled, and by the end of October the Chinese signatories to the agreement, who belonged to the Kuangsi party, were replaced in the Govern- ment of the province by the Canton party under General Chen Chuing-ming and Sun Yat Sen.
As further delay seemed inadvisable, Major Cassel returned to Hong Kong, and on the 30th October the two agreements wereformally communicated to the Wai-chiso Pu is enclosed. In this communication Mr. Clive laid stress on the
in a note of which Chinese and foreign interests of an early development of local coal
importance to both resources in South China, and asked for the good offices of the Ministry in support of Major Cassel's agreement, which offered, for this purpose, the co-operation of the beat known British firms in this country, on lines which had already proved mutually beneficial in similar mining enterprises in North China.
It was not long before references to the agreement began to appear in the press, and on the 15th November Mr. Clive received a written enquiry from the American Legation as to the accuracy of the report that a British syndicate had acquired the sole right to mine coal throughout the Canton province and to construct the necessary railroads. Mr. Clive replied on the 20th November that there was no question of any British monopoly of mining rights, but that British commercial interests working in co-operation with Chinese commercial interests had negotiated an agreement for
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