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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

EPERIC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON!

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

450

Under these circumstances we would suggest that no immediate action in the matter of inspection be taken, at any rate until we have received a full report from Mr. Eves.

We are, &c.,

For Sir JOHN WOLFE BARRY AND PARTNERS,

J. WOLFE BARRY. P.S-Since writing the above we have received the following cable from Mr. Eves, which confirms the statements in our letter:-

36933

"We are having a great deal of sickness. Labour here is very poor. Cannot import till season improves."

(Secret.) MY LORD,

No. 295.

GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN to THE EARL OF ELGIN.

(Received October 6, 1906.)

[Copy to Foreign Office, October 17, 1906. L.F.]

Government House, Hong Kong, September 6, 1906. IN continuation of my secret despatch of the 24th August* 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 have the honour to enclose, for information and record, a paraphrase of further telegraphic corre- spondence in the matter.

2. From the first three of these telegrams (XLVII. to XLIX.) your Lordship will see that the attempt, reported in my last despatch, to open up negotiations with the Viceroy for the conclusion of the joint working agreement failed. I sub- sequently learned that just before or about the time that this attempt was being made (probably on August 23rd) Kung Taotai telegraphed from Peking to the Viceroy at Canton that the loan agreement was being discussed on the lines of the Shan Hai Kwan Agreement, and I think it probable that the Viceroy having, as he thought, got matters going on in his own way with regard to the loan agree ment, thought it unnecessary to be conciliatory to me in the matter of the working agreement. This is, as your Lordship is aware, what I feared would be the case when I telegraphed to His Britannic Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires on the 1st and 3rd August (XLI. and XLIII.) that I considered that the Wai Wu Pu should be informed that any departure in the Canton-Kowloon Loan Agreement from the terms of that for the Shanghai-Nanking line would only be accepted if a satis- factory working agreement were first concluded with the Government of Hong Kong.

3. This position not having been taken up, for the reasons given in Mr. Car- negie's letter of the 4th of August, of which an extract formed Enclosure 1 to my last despatch, I considered it advisable to send to Peking the telegram of the 28th of August (L.), which I repeated to your Lordship on the same date (LI.), to ensure the inclusion in the loan agreement of provisions without which I am satis- fied that the subsequent conclusion of a satisfactory working agreement will not be possible. I have received no reply to this telegram. To my subsequent one of the 3rd instant (LII.), enquiring what progress had been made in the negotiations, His Britannic Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires has replied (LIII.) that three meetings had been held, of which the first two were fruitless and the result of the third unknown.

4. I enclose a copy of the minutes of the first of these meetings which I received yesterday from the Chief Manager of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Company here. The conditions referred to in the minutes as having been proposed by the Viceroy are those of which a copy formed a sub-enclosure to Enclosure 2 of my secret despatch of the 20th of April, 1906.†

I have, &c.,

M. NATHAN,

Governor.

• No. 293.

† No. 251.

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Enclosure 1 in No. 295.

PARAPHRASE OF TELEGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

XLVII.

VICEROY, Canton, to HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL-GENERAL, Canton. (August 25, 1906.)

Your telegram yesterday. I at once asked Wen Taotai, who said that the subject of conversation with the Governor of Hong Kong on April 23rd was the management of the traffic when the railway was completed. The agreement as to the construction of the railway is now being discussed at Peking and a settlement has not yet been arrived at. It will not be too late to send a deputy to Hong Kong to discuss the working agreement when a settlement is come to at Peking. Please communicate this to Governor of Hong Kong.-(Seal of Viceroy.)

XLVIII.

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL-GENERAL, Canton, to HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S VICE-CONSUL, Canton. (August 26, 1906.)

Please communicate the following to the Viceroy as a telegram from me:-

The Governor of Hong Kong considers that the settlement at Peking of the loan agreement with Mr. Bland on the lines suggested by Your Excellency in place of those to which China is bound by the agreement of 1899 must depend on Your Excellency showing goodwill in the settlement of the agreement with Hong Kong regarding the future management of the railway. I hope and advise, therefore, that Your Excellency will send Wen Taotai or some other deputy to Hong Kong at once to discuss this matter and make an amicable arrangement regarding it. The Government and gentry of Hong Kong are greatly interested and I could assist, while here, in obtaining early settlement.

-MANSFIELD.

XLIX.

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S VICE-CONSUL, Canton, to HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL-GENERAL, Canton.

(August 27, 1906.)

Canton-Kowloon Railway. The Viceroy refuses until the negotiations at Peking are settled.—TEBBITT.

L.

GOVERNOR, Hong Kong, to His BRITANNIC Majesty's Chargé d'AFFAIRES, Peking (Despatched 12.20 p.m., August 28, 1906.)

Your despatch of 4th August. I have endeavoured, with Mr. Mansfield, to get the Viceroy to negotiate the working agreement, but he has refused to do so until the Peking negotiations are settled. In these circumstances the loan agreement should provide that the railway is to be constructed so as to admit of its being worked as one line, without a break, with the British railway from Kowloon now being constructed, and so as to connect with the Canton-Hankow line. It should also embody Article 17 of the printed draft loan agreement-it should also provide for negotiation of the working agreement between the Viceroy and myself being commenced within one month of the signature of the loan agreement. like to see the new draft loan agreement before it is executed.--NATHAN.

I should

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