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goes to them or to the government.
I incline to the
latter at the moment but again we might await Minister
for Foreign Affairs' views regarding board before
going further into that.
'7. Turning to Addis' contention (latter part of
first paragraph of your telegram No. 62) that orders
for railway material would naturally gravitate
towards Great Britain without some special proviso
to that effect I regret I cannot agree. There is a
steady tendency to eliminate foreign elements in rail- weys and to restrict powers of foreign staff.
8. If general purport of this telegram is approved
I propose to set to work on necessary details and to
request Mr. Newton to begin feeling the ground in
Nanking in preparatory way.
Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No. 144,
February 16th, repeated to Hankow for Mr. Newton No. 12.