PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
LTTLE C.O. 882
6 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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If, hereafter, two rival German and English lines were built from Chinan to the sen-one to Chefoo and Wei-hai-wei and one to Kino Chou-it is probable that the ports of Chefoo and Wei-hai-wei would in time obtain the largest share of the ex- porting and shipping business, because these ports lie more in the path of passing shipping than Kino Chou, and are better situated for exporting goods to North China, Manchuria, Corea and Japan.
At present, as is well known, the English Government has given an assurance to the German Government that no railways will be built inland from Wei-hai-wei (vide China Blue Book, No. 1, 1899, page 5), and as long as this assurance holds good it is clear that nothing can be done.
Germany further, under Section 5 of the Convention of Kiao Chou, 1898, claims the sole right of refusal to advance capital for the making of any railways in Shantung by any person and also claims that any person building a railway in Shantung must apply in the first instance to Germany for all railway material, rails, engines, &c., necessary to carry out the railway enterprise in question.
[Note. The concluding paragraphs are printed separately as Fastern, No. 80.]
G. T. HARE,
Secretary for Chinese Affairs,
Wei-hai-wei, March 31, 1902.
Federated Malay States,
Acting Assistant British Commissioner,
Wei-hai-wei.
Appendix IV.
Meteorological Summary for the year ending 31st August, 1901.
Temperature.
Rainfall, inches.
Mean Maximum.
Menn Minimum.
*Mostly snow.
September, 1900
79.31
67.86
0.44
October, 1900
66.64
54.27
1.18
November, 1900
53.60
46.33
0.35
December, 1900
39.37
30.24
2.08.
"Mostly snow.
January, 1901
36.65
26.69
1.60
February, 1901
32.61
23.42
0.06*
March, 1901
47.34
32.14
0.07
*Mostly snow,
April, 1901...
60.88
41.05
0.21
May, 1901
67.37
53.43
2.67
June, 1901...
78.71
63.7
1.09
July, 1901 ...
***
80.9
68.72
1.35
August, 1901
82.64
72.72
1.78
Total ...
12.04
25277.
SIR,
No. 97.
COMMISSIONER LOCKHART to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
(Confidential. No. 23.)
(Received June 23, 1902.)
[Answered by No. 110.]
Government House, Wei-hai-Wei, May 15, 1902. I HAVE the honour to enclose herewith a communication which I have just received from Mr. Bridges, of the firm of Messrs. Lavers and Clark, inquiring whether
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permission can be granted for the construction of a railway from the shores of the Lay of this dependency to the boundary of the territory leased to Great Britain.
2. As Mr. Bridges points out, the object of constructing a railway in British territory is to enable it to be connected with another railway which is to run in and about the province of Shantung, and to be constructed, so far as I understand, by Chinese or Americans.
3. I have searched the archives of this Government with a view to ascertaining whether any instructions have ever been sent to my predecessors regarding the ques- tion of railway construction from Wei-hai-Wei, but I have not been able to discover any such instructions.
4. On reference to the pages of Hansard, I find that on the 13th of June, 1898, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Curzon) read the following declaration, in reply to a question from Mr. Provand, Membor for Blackfriars, Glasgow:
England formally declares that in establishing herself at Wet-hai-Wei she has no intention of injuring or contesting the rights and interests of Germany in the Province of Shangtung or of creating difficulties for her in that province. It is specially understood that England will not con- struct any railroad communication from Wei-hai-Wei and the district leased therewith into the interior of the Province."
5. In the "Times" of the 21st March last the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Cranborne, is reported to have stated as follows, in reply to a speech made by Mr. Walton, Member for Barnsley, Yorkshire:-
"He (Mr. Walton) had recited the terms of the Anglo-Russia understanding quite correctly, but he had not referred correctly to the terms of the Anglo- German understanding. That understanding was really an under- standing between two syndicates, countersigned no doubt by their respec- tive Governments. The particular lines which pass through the province of Shantung or which were proposed to be carried through that province and through the Yang-Tsze Valley were allotted in part to the German syndicate, and in part to the British syndicate. The Shantung portion was allotted to the Germans and the Yang-Tsze portion to the British. The understanding went no further than that. It was an ordinary trade arrangement, which acquired much more importance than would other- wise have belonged to it because the agreement was endorsed by the two Governments. But that endorsement did not extend the agreement beyond the subject matter, which was strictly limited, and never intended to extend to the whole of the Province of Shantung, or to the whole of the Yang-Tsze Valley. He found no declaration of the German Government which was inconsistent with that view. He had the highest evidence as to the German view in regard to the Province of Shantung. The German Chancellor in his speech on the commercial claims of Germany in Shian- tung stated that all the nations were in the same position in that province as in all other parts of the Chinese Empire; and he concluded by saying: 'there is, therefore, no question of exclusive German rights in Shantung.' There was consequently no reason to say that Germany closed the open door in that province."
6. I understand, also, that the Government of Germany has informed the Government of the United States that the former claims no exclusive rights in the Province of Shantung.
7. If there exists no longer any question of exclusive rights in Shantung, and all nations are now regarded as entitled to equal rights and privileges in that province, presume the declaration made in 1898 has been withdrawn, and that the British Government is now free to sanction the construction of railways from Wei-hai-Wei so as to connect it with other parts of Shantung and China generally.
I
8. But if I am wrong in such a presumption, which is based on the public utterances of the German Chancellor, quoted by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Cranborne, I request to be instructed whether the declara- tion read by Mr. Curzon still holds good, and, if so, what the declaration was intended to include, for I observe that it refers only to railway communication with the interior of the province. The question, therefore, arises whether, for example, the construc
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• Fourth Series, Vol. 1, IX., Seventh Volume of Session 1398, 13th June, 1898,
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