PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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of a railway from Kowloon and for other railway purposes, and I am of opinion that the Ordinance is one which is not contrary to the Governor's instructions.
This Ordinance authorizes the Governor to raise as occasion may require sums not exceeding, in the whole, two million pounds for the purpose of defraying the cost of a railway from Kowloon to the frontier,,and for other railway purposes.
41109
SIR,
(Secret.)
No. 168.
HENRY S. BERKELEY,
Attorney-General
GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN to MR. LYTTELTON.
(Received November 18, 1905.)
Government House, Hong Kong, October 18, 1905. IN continuation of my despatch of the 6th of October last,* on the subject of negotiations for the completion of a loan agreement and of a joint working agree- ment in connection with the proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway I regret to have still little progress to report.
2.
You will have doubtless received from the Foreign Office a copy of the despatch which Sir Ernest Satow addressed to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on the 5th instant, enclosing notes of a conversation he had with Prince Ch'ing on the 28th September, in which His Highness insisted on the impossibility of the Wai Wu Pu coercing the Viceroy regardless of his own opinion or the feeling of the Cantonese.
3. In the meantime the Canton newspapers continue to proclaim the Viceroy's views as to the importance and urgency of the railway and the equal importance of the Chinese constructing it with their own money.
4. In the course of a conversation I had yesterday with Wen Taotai, the Viceroy's Secretary, who was in Hong Kong on some extradition business, he was very emphatic with regard to the Viceroy's desire to push on the railway, and stated that is Excellency had telegraphed to Chang Chin Hsun, now in the Straits Settle- ments, to engage surveyors. I pointed out that it was not possible for His Majesty's Government to ignore, as apparently the Viceroy did, the preliminary agreement of March, 1899, with the British and Chinese Corporation, and that if the Viceroy disliked that agreement his best course would be to negotiate with the Corporation for its modification. I also suggested that the survey of the Canton section of the line would probably be more expeditiously and economically done by the engineers that had surveyed the Hong Kong section than by new men selected by His Excel- lency Chang Chin Hsun. With regard to the joint working agreement Mr. Wen said that the Viceroy appreciated the necessity for such an agreement when the construction of the two sections was completed.
5. I am becoming more and more convinced that our best chance of getting the Canton section of the Canton Kowloon Railway completed at the same time as the Hong Kong section is finished, and of getting the subsequent joint working of the two sections settled by a satisfactory agreement, will be by the surrender by the British and Chinese Corporation of their Concession on the following con- ditions:-
(i) Out of pocket expenses to be repaid to the Corporation by China, and (ii) An agreement to be concluded between the Viceroy of the Two Kuang and the Government of Hong Kong for the completion of the two sections by a specified date, and for their subsequent joint working. I am also convinced that the Chinese will not, however much they talk now about it. be able to raise the necessary funds for the construction of their section without foreign assistance.
6. It is premature, before I hear from you whether the British and Chinese Corporation will entertain the suggestion of surrendering their Concession, to make proposals as to the conditions to be embodied in the suggested agreement between the Viceroy and this Government. My general idea, however, is that it should
• No. 161.
↑ Enclosure in No. 179.
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provide for this Government supplying-probably at 5 per cent., and on some part of the provincial revenue as security-any capital required that cannot be furnished by Chinese, all the material and rolling stock that they cannot get from China, and all the engineers; in effect we should build the Canton Section simultaneously with our own, and partly, at any rate, with money we should lend for the purpose. We should, however, claim no hold on the line except what might be given by the joint working provisions of the agreement, which would be much as already proposed to the Viceroy.
7. It was with some such agreement in view that in recently obtaining the authority of the Legislature for the raising of a railway loan, as reported to you in another despatch of even date,* I included a sum of £400,000 in excess of the total amount required both to repay advances that have been made to this Government by the Crown Agents, in connection with the redemption of the Canton-Hankow Railway, and to provide for the construction of the Hong Kong section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway. This £400,000, together with the £550,000, which are to be repaid by Viceroy Chang Chih Tung by the 6th of October, 1910, should go a long way in the direction of supplying the capital required for the Canton section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway, the British and Chinese Corporation's proposal for a loan of £2,000,000 for a line little over 100 miles in length, and presenting no engineering difficulties being, in my opinion, a ridiculously high estimate.
8. I have communicated my general idea as embodied in the three foregoing paragraphs to Sir Ernest Satow in explanation of my desire not to make a supple- mentary loan to the Viceroy at Wuchang, unless by such loan only, the complete extinction of foreign interests in the Canton-Hankow Railways can be secured.
I have, &c.,
41110
SIR,
(Secret.)
No. 169.
M. NATHAN,
Governor.
GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN to MR. LYTTELTON. (Received November 18, 1905.)
Government House, Hong Kong, October 18, 1905. IN continuation of my secret despatch of the 6th October, 1905,† on the subject of loan by Hong Kong to the Viceroy at Wnchang in connection with the redemption of the Canton-Hankow Railway, I have the honour to enclose, for your information and record, a paraphrase of further telegraphic correspondence with yourself, His Britannic Majesty's Minister at Peking, and His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General at Hankow.
2. In the 7th paragraph of the despatch above referred to, which left the Colony at noon on Saturday, the 7th instant, I informed you that besides the Colonial Secretary, my Private Secretaries, and myself, no one was aware of the Government of Hong Kong having taken any part in the re-purchase of this railway concession. Two hours later a telegram was brought to me from the office of "The China Mail " newspaper stating that there had been published in Shanghai an agreement between Chang Chih Tung and the Hong Kong Government for a loan by Hong Kong of £1,100,000. I did not think it desirable to confirm this news until I had communicated the Agreement, and confidentially the concomitant advan- tages to be derived from it, to the Executive Council. I accordingly at once tele. graphed (CVIII.) for your concurrence in my making this communication, and received your answer on the following day (CIX.).
3. The information from Shanghai being repeated in the issue of "The South China Morning Post" newspaper, which appeared on the morning of the 8th. I held a meeting of Executive Council on that day, in which my action in the matter of the loan was unanimously approved. The Council did not think it necessary that at that period I should make any statement to the Legislative Council on the subject. 4. On the night of Wednesday, the 11th, however, I received your telegram of that day (CX.) telling me at once to legislate for authority to raise a loan for the
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• No. 167.
↑ No. 161.
* H