CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 539

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that, according to a telegram received from the

Viceroy at Canton, His Majesty's Consul-General was

some time since informed of the conclusion to raise

capital locally, and that you saw no reason there-

fore for appointing an official to enter into nego-

tiations with the representative of the British and

Chinese Corporation.

I confess that the contents of this Note Bur-

prise me. As your Highness is aware there is a

Preliminary Agreement in regard to this matter which

was concluded by the British and Chinese Corporation

with His Excellency Sheng Hsuan-huai, on behalf of

the Chinese Government, on March 28th, 1899; and

what I am asking for is the fulfilment of this agree-

ment. Yet, unless I misjudge the contents of Your

Highness' Note, both you and the Viceroy of Canton,

on the pretext that the proposals contained in my

memorandum of April 26th do not accord with the Pre-

liminary Agreement, consider its provisions null and

void, clearly because some Cantonese notables and

merchants wish you to do so. Am I to understand

that

that Your Highness and the Viceroy of Canton serious-

ly think that in deference to the wishes of local

persone anxious to profit themselves it is open to

the Chinese Government to repudiate a solemn agree-

ment regardless of the views of the other party to

the agreement? I am aware that opinions of this

nature are ventilated in the Chiness press, but if

they are held by the Chinese Government or by the

Viceroy of Canton with the approval of the Chinese

Government, I should be glad to be told so officially

for the information of His Majesty's Government.

It is moreover astonishing to me that Your High-

ness should seriously allege any portion of the con-

tents of my memorandum of April 26th, which are mere

proposals, as a sufficient reason for abrogating the

Preliminary Agreement of 1899, which is a signed and

sealed contract.

Your Highness says that the division of the

railway into two sections the Kowloon section to be

built by the Hongkong Government, and the Canton sec-

tion by the British and Chinese Corporation for the

Chinese

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