CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 300

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was given to him and he was told that a correct

Chinese version would be found in the Shanghai Hsin-

wen Pao; this his secretary Mr. Chan had just seen.

Mr. Bland also handed in his Memorandum on

Railway Construction in China with apologies for the

inferiority of its Chinese translation.

The Vice-

roy said all that was needed was clearness and free-

dom from humbug.

Mr. Bland then stated that while in Peking he

had seen the President of the Board of Communica-

tions, who had assured him that, provided the Vice-

roy did not object, his Board would support the rais-

ing abroad of a construction loan for the Yueh-Han

and other Hu-Kuang railways.

Shao-i held the same views.

as the Board wrote or telegraphed that such a scheme

would be acceptable, to memorialize the Throne for

leave to borrow abroad for the building of Hupei's

sections of the trunk lines south and west. He had

been twice snubbed last year when he advocated this

step and he dare not move again unless assured of a

favourable reception of his proposals.

Mr. Bland enquired whether Hunan could not be in-

duced to come into line with Hupei. But His Excel-

lency vehemently asserted that the Hunan gentry with

whom all control lay would not listen to any argument

on the subject, being in this and other matters obsti-

nate, pigheaded and unenlightened,

Vice-President T'ang

never pay.

Mr. Bland was proceeding to advocate a uniform

system for all provincial railways and the making

of the whole Hankow-Canton line one government under-

taking when the Viceroy interposed that those were

questions for the Central Authorities; all he could

guarantee was that he was ready and anxious, so soon

We suggested that a line only to Yochow would

His Excellency agreed and said he had

hopes of being able to get Hunan to let Hupei continue

the line to Changsha on the understanding that Hupei

and not foreigners would be the lender. Possibly in

course of time, if that line proved a benefit, the

Hunanese of whom the moneyed merchants would never

supply the gentry with funds for railways nor the

needy

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