[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
69
(F.1819/57/10).
To CHINA.
Cypher telegram to Sir M. Lampson, (Peking),
Foreign Office, 16th April 1929, 3.45 p.m.
No. 149.
Your telegrams to Mr. Newton Nos. 88, 89 and 90
(of April 11th: Boxer Indemnity).
I approve general lines of your telegrams but I
observe that you suggest three alterations in the pro
posed notes, viz:-
(1)
Telegram 89, paragraph 2.
According to your
draft Chinese government are to specify that prior
charges on railway revenues must be met before interest
is paid on loan from Indemnity. This would give im-
pression that we are using Indemnity as lever to get
payment on arrears of existing railway loans. I agree
that these should have priority, but deprecate such
stipulation appearing in our Indemnity settlement. The
words "after prior charges on railway revenues concerned.
have been met" should therefore be omitted.
(2) Paragraph 5 of telegram No.89 should be omit-
Question of Board of Trusteos should be left en-
tirely to the National government.
ted.
(3) Your telegram No.90. There should be no
mention of the Indemnity in any assurance the Chinese -
may give regarding payment of outstanding debts for
material.
If drafts in your telegrams Nos. 89 and 90 have
not yet been submitted to the Chinese these corrections
should be made. If already submitted they need not be
corrected, but above considerations should be borne in
mind during subsequent negotiations.