CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 373

r. Collinson: he liked Mr. Collinson and had nothing

to say against him except that he had been perform-

ing his duties without a contract, and that was con-

trary to the intention of the Loan Agreement.

His Excellency had just received a letter from

Li Ching-fang (Lord L1), who is in charge of the

railway administration at Shanghai during his absence

in Peking, warning him that if these matters were not

promptly settled the affairs of the Shanghai-Nanking

Railway would become as "disordered" as those of the

Canton-Hankow Railway.

To

After Mr. Campbell promised to report these two

complaints to me, Sheng kung-pao indicated that he

had not yet made up his mind to undertake the nego-

tiations in regard to the Canton-Kowloon Railway,

this Mr. Campbell rejoined that the Wai Wu Pu had

mentioned him as the proper negotiator. His Excel-

lency explained that he had kept silent when my sum-

mary was sent to him, and had kept silent again when

the Wei Wu Pu sent him later the telegram from the

Viceroy of Canton mentioned in the second paragraph

366

of this despatch. When asked his reasons for this

silence he told Mr. Campbell, for my private informa-

tion, that he intended to endeavour to transfer the

burden of the negotiations to the Board of Commerce.

At the time of the Preliminary Agreement there was

no Board of Commerce, and all commercial negotiations

with Foreign Powers were thrust upon him. Now there

was such a Board he thought it should undertake these

negotiations. However he could not say for certain

whether he would undertake them, or the Board of

Commerce, or the Viceroy of Canton. If he under.

took them he should require from the Viceroy of

Canton the assistance of a delegate. In the meantime

he would examine the contents of the draft agree-

ments.

There was one point however on which he could

say something definite at once, and that was the

proposed sum of £2,000,000 for the railway loan.

That amount was out of the question and would have

to be reduced. He had been taken severely to task

by the Board of Commerce over the amount of the

of

Shanghai

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