CO129-332 - Public Offices & Others - 1905 — Page 326

324

PEKING

6th June 1000.

Dear Mr Ross,

The result of my conversation yesterday with a Tung sooms to be this, that Sheng is attacked on all sides by his foes, and that until he has either beaten them or boen defeated, the ques- tion of the negotiator on the Chinese side for Canton Kowloon railway cannot be settled.

If we attack him on the ground that he is dilatory and difficult to deal with, we should be in reality giving him a leg up, and if we advocated his boing chosen that would prejudice

him still further. The latter result is what we must desire in

our own interests, but we cannot very well lend ourselves to

such an intrigue. On the other hand, when I enlarged upon the necessity in Chinese interests of getting hold of a man who could be trusted not to buy up land,bricks or quarries with the object of filling his pockets and those of his friends, and so

increasing the cost of the railway to China, the reply was that

this was too delicate a matter foé him to open his mouth on.

I conclude therefore that it will be best to hold our hand

for the present and see how it goes with Shong. We will inform

the Governor of llongkong and the F.0. of the situation, so that

they may know we are doing our best, and point out to them that

while we are aware that the present moment is a good one for

raising money for enterprises in China, they must not expect that

because they have at last framed a scheme for working a conces-

sion granted soven years ago, it can now be put into final shape

with lightning rapidity.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) ERNEST SATOV.