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'། ། '། ་། །

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

6

Reference :-

C.O. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

366

A TRANSLATION OF A TELEGRAM from the Viceroy Tsen Chun Hsuan, dated the 23rd April, 1906, and received in London the same day.

The British Corporation has sent Mr. Blande (?) to conduct negotiations with regard to the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

The draft Agreement which was handed to me by Mr. Ross (?) has been amended and handed over to Mr. Blande to be submitted to the Corporation.

The chief points proposed in the amended draft are as follows:-

(1) That an English loan is to be raised for the purpose.

(2) That the salt revenue of Canton and the railway itself shall serve as

security against that loan.

(3) That an Englishman shall be employed as a Chief Engineer. (4) That an Englishman shall be employed to supervise all accounts. (5) That all necessary materials which cannot be obtained in China shall be ordered from England through the Corporation, for which service a certain remuneration will be paid.

As to how the junction of the railways on both sides should be made, it can be discussed, when the time comes, on the basis of any regulations which may exist in other countries with regard to such a matter.

Please approach Sir Edward Grey, and inform His Excellency of the present position of the negotiations regarding the Canton-Kowloon Railway as related in the above. It is sincerely hoped that His Excellency will be able to see his way to exercise his influence on the Corporation so as to bring the negotiation to a con- clusion on this basis.

13945

SIR,

No. 244.

COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.

[Answered by No. 245.]

Downing Street, May 3, 1906. WITH reference to previous correspondence I am directed by the Earl of Elgin to forward to you, to be laid before Secretary Sir E. Grey, the enclosed copy of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong with regard to the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

2. Lord Elgin would be glad if he might be furnished with a copy of the despatch from Sir E. Satow, dated March 3rd, to which the Governor refers.

16086

No. 245.

I am, &c.,

C. P. LUCAS.

FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received May 5, 1906.)

The Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, and begs to transmit herewith a copy of Sir E. Salow's despatch, No. 93, of March 3rd, referred to in the letter from the Colonial Office of the 3rd instant,† relative to the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

Foreign Office,

May 4, 1906.

• No. 241.

↑ No. 244.

(No. 93.)

SIR,

367

Enclosure in No. 245.

Peking, March 3, 1906. WITH reference to my telegram, No. 13, of February 7th, and my despatch, No. 15, of January 9th, I have the honour to enclose copies of further correspondence on the subject of the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

To Prince Ching, January 12, 1906. Canton, No. 7, January 31, 1906. Memorandum given to Prince Ching

by Bir E. Satow, February 17, 1906.

Translation of Telegram of February 23, 1906, from Wai Wa Pa to Viceroy

.of Canton.

with T'ang ta jen with a strong note to Prince I followed up my conversation of January 9th Ching, in which I exposed the baselessness of the Viceroy's argument on the phrase "in case there should arise local difficulties in Clause 5 of the Preliminary Agreement, repeated the telegraphic instructions sent by me to Mr. Scott on December 27th, and requested the issue of definite instructions to the Viceroy to discuss the draft Final Agreement with the British and Chinese Corporation, and proposed Working Agreement with the Hong Kong Government.

In consequence of pressure from the Wai Wu Pu the Viceroy now appeared to abandon his attitude of flat rejection. On January 24th the Governor of Hong Kong telegraphed that the Viceroy had asked for the English and Chinese texts of the Northern Railways Loan Agreement of 1898, and had stated that if he found it satisfactory he intended to open negotiations for the Canton-Kowloon Railway on the lines of that agreement. In reply, I suggested that if we gave the text it might be inferred that we were not altogether averse to the idea of making an agreement on those lines, and recommended standing out for negotiation on the basis of the draft agreements. If in the course of discussion, I said, the Chinese delegate brought up the proposal the British negotiator might examine it, but without showing any eagerness to accept it in place of the Corporation's draft.

Sir Matthew Nathan telegraphed on January 26th that he had asked His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton to inform the Viceroy that as the Northern Railways Agreement had no bearing on the engagement entered into by the Chinese Government in 1899 with regard to the Canton-Kowloon Railway he saw no object in obtaining copies of that agreement; and to state further that if His Excellency had any purpose beyond causing delay he would doubtless have taken steps to procure copies from his own Government.

On February 7th Sir Matthew Nathan telegraphed that the Viceroy had not replied to a despatch from His Majesty's Consul-General, and suggested further pressure at the Wai Wu Pu. On receipt of Mr. Scott's report (enclosure No. 2), I arranged an interview with Prince Ching whom I saw on February 17th. To shorten the discussion, His Highness not being in the best of health, I handed him the memorandum enclosed (enclosure No. 3). At first he said that according to a telegram received by the Wai Wu Pu from the Viceroy His Majesty's Consul-General had made a proposition to discuss this matter on the basis of the Northern Railways Loan Agreement. I corrected this error, whereupon he said that a telegram would be sent to Canton. I asked that the telegram should contain specific instructions to the Viceroy to order his delegate to discuss the draft Final and Working Agree- ments with the Agent of the British and Chinese Corporation. For some time he refused to do this, and said that discretion must be left to the Viceroy, who had to consider local conditions. I impressed upon His Highness that I was asking for the fulfilment of a preliminary agreement entered into by the Chinese Govern- ment according to which the final contract of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway was to be taken as the basis for the final contract of the Canton-Kowloon line, and I pointed out that the local conditions mentioned in the Preliminary Agreement referred to questions of feng shui, graves, and route to be followed-questions of detail merely. The Viceroy persisted in construing this phrase in the Preliminary Agreement as entitling him to object to the whole undertaking in principle, and for that reason I held it necessary that he should receive specific instructions.

His Highness then argued that the Agreement of March, 1899, being only pre- liminary, and the Final Agreement and Loan not having been concluded, the matter was quite open and the Viceroy could not be asked to accept specific terms; but I referred him again to the Preliminary Agreement which said that the Final Agree ment for the Canton-Kowloon Railway should be based on that concluded for the Shanghai-Nanking Railway. That, I said, did not mean that the latter Agreement