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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TILIC.O. 882

6

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

day (XCIX), but, to be, as stated in Mr. Fraser's telegram of the 5th (CV), for payments due on coupons of bonds already sold by the Railway Company. At any rate, it is clear that the Chinese Government is not in need of immediate further assistance in connection with the Canton-Hankow Railway redemption, and I am glad that you accepted in your telegram of the 5th (CIV) the view expressed in mine of the 4th (XCIX) that the matter of a further loan should, if such loan is required, be dealt with later in a separate agreement. Certainly nothing further can be done with regard to further financial assistance by this Government until I understand more clearly than I do from the correspondence now forwarded, the purpose for which it is required and its probable finality. I hardly anticipate to do this till Mr. Fraser has returned to the charge of the Consulate at Hankow.

6. In the meantime, I trust that the payments of £700,000 to the Chinese Minister at New York and of £400,000 to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which you have been good enough to arrange for this Government, have been duly made to-day, and that effect has thus been given to our part of the agree- ment of September 9th, the negotiations with regard to which were initiated by your telegram of the 22nd of June last. (I).

7. It may interest you to learn that though it is generally known that foreign interests in the Hankow-Canton Railway have been bought out by China, there is besides the Colonial Secretary, my Private Secretaries and myself, no one in the Colony who is aware at the present time that the Government of Hong Kong has taken any part in the repurchase. In the course of an interview that I had this morning, concerning other matters, with Sir Paul Chater, Kt., C.M.G., M.L.C., he expressed great satisfaction that the foreign element had been eliminated from the Canton-Hankow Railway, and that the British Government and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation had been instrumental in effecting this elimination.

I have, &c.,

Enclosure in No. 161,

M. NATHAN,

Governor.

Paraphrase of telegraphic correspondence with the Secretary of State, His Britannic Majesty's Minister at Peking, and His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General and Vice-Consul at Hankow.

(33952.)

LXXXIX.

SECRETARY OF STATE to GOVERNOR, Hong Kong. (Despatched 8.10 p.m., September 29, 1905: Received 7.5 a.m., September 30, 1905.) The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank have received information from New York that Messrs. Morgan and Company expect to be paid £950,000 on the 8th of October.

I have made arrangements for £700,000 to be paid on the 6th of October to the Chinese Minister at New York, as you requested in your telegram of 7th September.

Can you explain this discrepancy?

Please telegraph at once if you wish me to modify the arrangements that I have made.-LYTTELTON.

XC.

GOVERNOR, Hong Kong, to HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL-GENERAL, Hankow. (Despatched 9.40 a.m., September 30, 1905.)

The Secretary of State has heard that Mr. Morgan expects to be paid £950,000 on the 8th of October, and asks me to explain the discrepancy between these figures and the amount of £700.000 that we are paying to the Chinese Minister at New York on the 6th of October.

What shall I tell him - NATHAN.

(35138.)

XCI.

GOVERNOR, Hong Kong, to SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Despatched 5 p.m., October 2, 1905.)

I am still awaiting from Hankow an explanation of the discrepancy referred

to in your telegram of the 29th of September, but the arrangements as requested in my telegram of the 7th of September are in accordance with the agreement signed on my behalf and must be carried out.-NATHAN.

(35138.)

XCH.

SECRETARY OF STATE to GovERNOR, Hong Kong.

(Despatched 6.25 p.m., October 2, 1905: Received 6.7 a.m., October 3, 1905.)

Do you wish for any special form of receipt for the £700,000 to be obtained from the Chinese Minister at New York? Thursday suggested wording.-LYTTELTON.

If you do, please telegraph before

(35220.)

XCIII.

GOVERNOR, Hong Kong, to SECRETARY of State. (Despatched 11.30 a.m., October 3, 1905.)

The receipt should state that £700,000

Your telegram of yesterday's date. has been received from the Government of Hong Kong in accordance with, and subject to, the conditions of the agreement signed by the Viceroy of Hu Kwang Provinces and His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General, Hankow, on the 9th of September at Wuchang.-NATHAN

XCIV.

GOVERNOR, Hong Kong, to His BRITANNIC MAJESTY's Minister, Peking. (Despatched 12.30 p.m., October 3, 1905.)

Following telegram sent to His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General at Hankow on the 30th of September:-

(Telegram No. XC repeated.)

I have received no answer from Hankow.

Can you give me any information ?---NATHAN.

XCV.

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S VICE-CONSUL, Hankow, to GOVERNOR, Hong Kong. (Despatched 5.25 p.m., October 3, 1905: Received 9.58 p.m., October 3, 1905.)

(No. 8.)

Your telegram September 30th.

Reply just received from the Viceroy to my enquiries, states that the sum of £950,000 represents the (one undecypherable group) £700,000 on the 6th of October plus the value of the outstanding shares which are mostly held by Belgian share- holders. The Viceroy has not yet any definite news as to whether they are willing to hand them over to China or not; but, if so, he proposes to borrow further from us the sum of £200,000 to redeem the whole. £700,000 may be punctually remitted on October 6th to the Chinese Minister at He urgently begs that the sum of Washington. As to the further loan of £200,000, he begs that you consult the Colonial Office by telegraph whether, in case this sum can be remitted together with the larger amount, it should form the subject of a separate agreement or whether the money should simply be incorporated by him and the Consul-General in the existing loan agreement.

He is quite willing to adopt either course, and expreses his grateful thanks. Private.--Germans (?) have been making persistent enquiries as to whether the Viceroy wanted further sums, and appear anxious to supply them if necessary.— SAVAGE.

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