CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 573

Enclos, in no.

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

No

566

[November

0.

SECTION

12102

Rece

(No. 312.) My Lord,

Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne,--(Received November 40:27 NOV 05

Peking, September 21, 1905, REFERRING to my despatch No. 302 of the 11th September, I have the honour to inclose copies of further correspondence with the Wai-wu Pu on the subject of the Cantou-Kowloon Railway,

The Wai-wu Pu, on the 16th September, replied to my note of the 11th September, stating that the desire of the Chinese Notables and merchants to raise money and build the Canton section themselves, correspond with the method of the Hong Kong Govern- ment in regard to the section in British territory, and that they had referred my note to the Viceroy of Canton for his consideration and report.

As the whole point of my previous observations--that there exists a preliminary contract which must be faithfully observed-was evaded in this reply, I wrote again to the Wai-wu Pu on the 19th September, reminding them that, whatever the plans of the Viceroy or the wishes of the Chinese Notables and merchants, His Majesty's Govern- ment looked to the Chinese Government to see that the terms of the preliminary Agreement of the 28th March, 1899, are properly fulfilled.

I also inclose a copy of a despatch and inclosures recently received from His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, which will enable your Lordship to appreciate the shifting methods of the Viceroy in this matter. Early in August his Excellency conveyed verbally to Mr. Scott an assurance of" friendly co-operation," but when asked to confirm this in writing, his real attitude of strong opposition to our proposals, of which I had private information here, was disclosed openly and directly.

This attitude is of a piece with the wave of popular feeling which is passing over the country. It has become the mot d'ordre to endeavour to curtail all foreign privileges and concessions, and especially Mining and Railway Concessions, by every means, and to resolutely block the granting of new ones. Wherever the Concessions are in the preliminary stage, as in the case of the Canton-Kowloon Railway, the avowed method is either to annul them or to exhaust every artifice to delay; and the popular movement coinciding with the wishes of the official classes, it is evident that more than ordinary pressure will be required to bring the Chinese Government to a clear sense of their obligations in these matters. I should point out that Mr. Brenan spent months negotiating an incomplete and unsatisfactory arrangement in regard to the Shanghae- Nanking Railway, and that was before the present agitation arose.

The motives underlying the agitation are no doubt mixed. The war in Manchuria has brought home to the Chinese Government the danger of granting Railway Con- cessions to foreign Powers, as in Shantung, Yünnan, and Manchuria, and they are now moving to the other extreme and opposing any foreign control, technical or otherwise, which might conceivably be stretched to interfere with native jurisdiction. On the other hand, the profits of the northern railways, which have been magnified lately in the Chinese press, have served as an object lesson of another sort to show how advantageous it is to build railways for themselves, even if they have to borrow foreign capital for the

A copy of this despatch will be sent to the Governor of Hong Kong,

purpose.

1 have, &c. (Signed)

ERNEST SATOW.

(Translation.)

Inclosure 1 in No.

Prince Ching to Sir E. Satow.

Kuang Hsü, 31st year, 8th moon, 18th day (September 16, 1905).

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's note of the 11th instant on the subject of the Canton-Kowloon Railway, in which you ask that the

[2248 d-2]