CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 293

28.9

C. O.

--

Paraphrase of telegram to Hankow No22.

7229

Rent 26 FEB 07,

Peking, 30th October, 1906.

Hankow Canton Railway, Confidential,

I learn from Bland that he has reason to think

that the Viceroy Chang may now be ready to consider

proposals for a loan for the construction of this rail-

way based on the terms of the Centon Kowloon final

loan agreement which are now practically settled.

Bland and Ca senave representing the English and

French groups of the Central Chinese Railways intend

to ask the Viceroy for an interview at an early date

to discuss the matter.

Although the co-operation of Casenave vis-à-vis

the Chinese would merely be for financial purposes, I

doubt whether this would be believed by the Viceroy

or the Chinese Government, and they might make use of

Casenave's open intervention in this way as an excuse

for evading their engagement of September 1905. I

should be glad if you would furnish me with your opin-

ion on the matter.

Personally I think that in view

of the nature of the engagement mentioned above Bland

alone