CO882-6 — Page 698

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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terms proposed by the Consulting Engineers in their letter of the 25th January, and the Consulting Engineers have sent him, under flying scal through us and the Colonial Government, all necessary instructions for the carrying out of the work.

2. Mr. Eves was already in China, and appears to have arrived in Hong Kong in anticipation of his instructions, which were sent to the Colonial Government by the mail of 16th March.

3. The Consulting Engineers are quite alive to the importance of the early commencement of the work of piercing the tunnel through the Kowloon Hills, and are making arrangements to have this portion of the work started as soon as possible. 4. We are communicating a copy of the Governor's despatch to the Consulting Engineers.

I have, &c.,

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No. 235.

E. E. BLAKE.

THE EARL OF ELGIN to GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN. (Sent 5.55 p.m., March 30, 1906.) TELEGRAM.

Referring to your telegram of March 23,* answer in the affirmative. Instruc- tions to person named sent out by Crown Agents through Government of Hong Kong by mail of March 16.

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No. 236.

GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN to THE EARL OF ELGIN. (Received 10.35 a.m., April 2, 1906.)

TELEGRAM.

[Copy to Crown Agents, April 5, 1906.TM L.F.]

Referring to list of railway staff enclosed in despatch of 9th February,t only Chief Engineer, Assistant Engineer, and Draughtsman required from home at any rate till tunnel plant has been received here. Personal assistant, tunnel overseer, and Inspector for Chief and Taipo offices altogether unnecessary.

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No. 237.

FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received April 4, 1906.)

The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copy of the under-mentioned paper. Foreign Office,

April 4, 1906.

DESCRIPTION OF ENCLOSURE.

Name and Date.

Subject.

Bir E. Batow, No. 15 of January 9...

Canton Kowloon Railway.

• No. 229.

† No. 210.

SIR,

(No. 15.)

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Enclosure in No. 237.

Sir E. SATow to Sir EDWARD Grey. (Received February 24.)

Peking, January 9, 1906. WITH reference to my despatch, No. 430, of the 11th December to Lord Lansdowne, I have the honour to enclose copies of further correspondence relating to the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

On the 12th December I received a letter from the Wai-wu Pu informing me that the Viceroy of Canton had at last agreed to appoint a deputy to negotiate with the Representative of the British and Chinese Corporation, but from telegrams of the 20th and 24th December received from Sir Matthew Nathan and Mr. Scott I learnt that the result of two interviews between the Viceroy's deputies and Mr. Ross, the Corporation's agent, was a refusal to carry out the original Conces- sion or to discuss the details of a Final Agreement. The deputies were merely empowered to ask for the cancellation of the Concession and to offer to refund certain survey expenses.

On the 28th December a further telegram from the Governor of Hong Kong informed me that a copy of a despatch addressed by the Viceroy of Canton to His Majesty's Consul-General on the subject was on its way to me, in which it was urged that the situation had changed during the interval since the signature of the Preliminary Agreement, and that the question of British firms constructing the Chinese section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway should be now dropped. Sir Matthew Nathan proposed to reply through Mr. Scott that he was unable to accept the Viceroy's view, which could not be supported by the Chinese Govern- ment without breach of faith, and that so long as His Excellency preserved his present unfriendly attitude he must not expect co-operation or assistance from the Hong Kong Government. I telegraphed my concurrence in this proposed reply, and next day wrote to the Wai-wu Pu requesting that instructions should be sent to the Viceroy to give such directions to his Delegates as would insure that the negotiations were conducted in accordance with the ordinary rules of international business. At the same time I instructed Mr. Scott, by telegraph, to inform the Viceroy that his method of treating a solemn contract was wholly inadmissible; that if it was persisted in I should be compelled to recommend His Majesty's Government to take serious notice of it; that the Governor of Hong Kong com- plained of his unfriendly attitude; that His Excellency's sympathetic treatment of political agitations against foreign interests was a matter of notoriety; that in this matter of the Kowloon-Canton Railway there was scarcely a doubt that he was encouraging and perhaps leading the local agitation, which was only part of the general antagonism throughout China against foreign enterprises; that he could not be too strongly warned against such a course of action, which was highly dangerous; and that it was his duty in China's interests to check such movements and not to encourage them. I also asked Mr. Scott to make the Viceroy thoroughly understand that the hostile and unreasonable attitude of Chinese authorities like himself towards British enterprises had already excited considerable attention in Great Britain.

In his despatch, No. 63, Confidential, of the 12th December (Enclosure 2), Mr. Scott mentioned a complaint of the Viceroy that "his position was rendered more difficult by the fact that the French Consul here and the French Minister in Peking claimed that whatever railway facilities or concessions were granted to British Companies, the same rights should be granted to them in respect of a railway from Kuangchou Wan into the interior." I requested Mr. Scott, in a confidential telegram of the 27th December, to ascertain whether the French Consul at Canton was really interfering in the sense implied; and on the 5th January he replied that the French Consul had warned the Viceroy that if the English were allowed to construct the Canton-Kowloon Railway a similar Concession must be granted to the French for the Kuangchou Wan hinterland. Mr. Scott also said that the French were demanding the Concession for a railway from Samshui to Wuchow.

In the course of a conversation with my French colleague immediately after the receipt of Mr. Scott's reply, I was informed that the quid pro quo with which he hoped to negotiate a Concession for a tramway from Kuangohou Wan to Milne and thence to Yül-lin, about 60 kilom. in length, was the right to establish a

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