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(No. 10.)
(Telegraphic.) P.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul-General Fraser to Sir E. Sutow.
PLEASE see my telegram No. 5.
[Undated.]
A reply has been received from Kinder accepting the post and mentioning his terms, subject to permission being granted by the Viceroy at Tien-tsin. He states that he is returning in June.
His terms are accepted by the Viceroy of Wuchang, who wants him to accept the post definitely by telegraph. Unless the Tien-tsin Viceroy's assent is first assured, Kinder may find this difficult.
In the circumstances I would suggest that before I telegraph on behalf of the Viceroy of Wuchang, this assent be communicated to me.
(No. 16.)
(Telegraphic.) P.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Mr. Carnegie to Consul-General Fraser.
May 13, 1906. WITH reference to my telegram No. 15 of yesterday's date I have to inform you that Tong states that Kinder's services are really required here, and that it is therefore impossible to spare him. He promises, however, that the Viceroy will be asked to spare some other competent engineer for the purpose indicated by you,
Inclosure 5 in No. 1.
Consul-General Fraser to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 18.)
Hankow, October 26, 1906. (Telegraphic.) P.
PLEASE refer to previous correspondence respecting the Cantou-Hankow Railway.
A Secretary was sent to me to-day with a note from Viceroy Chang stating his desire to engage a British engineer for the resurvey of the Hunan and Hupei sections. The Secretary was instructed to explain that the engineer's salary could not exceed 800 dollars a month, and that he would have a Japanese colleague. Any difference of opinion would be settled by the Viceroy. The construction of the Hupei section which would follow at once would be intrusted to the engineer, and probably" that of the Hunan section also. I am, at the Secretary's request, writing to Kinder, whose own salary of 2001. a-month the Viceroy cannot afford, to ask whether he can detach Cox or Tuckey for the survey at any rate; that would be two or three months roughly.
"K
The Viceroy added that the Canton Company propose to engage an American engineer, and that he could not interfere. I pointed out to the Secretary, and I am repeating my remarks in a note to the Viceroy, that, the Company being now in enjoy- meat of a right which was redeemed for them by British aid, it is not honourable for them to ignore the promise of the high authorities of three provinces, and to deny the first option to British engineers. I am adding that though the matter may technically be beyond the sphere of the Wuehang Viceroy, I feel convinced that the Company would be influenced by the expressed opinion of the man who succeeded in negotiating the resumption, and to whose position in regard to His Majesty's Representatives it was due that a loan on such extraordinarily favourable terms was obtained.
(No. 17.)
(Telegraphic.) P.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Mr. Carnegie to Consul-General Fraser.
PLEASE refer to my telegram No. 16 of the 13th instant.
May 25, 1906.
Yuan Shih-K'ai has replied that he has no engineer to spare, and the matter has again been pressed on T'ong. The latter now says that if Kinder will first come to Tien-tsin and satisfy the Viceroy that his services can be spared, there would be no reason why the Viceroy of Wuchang should not employ him for two or three months.
(No. 25.) (Telegraphic.) P.
Inclosure 6 in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Consul-General Fraser.
October 28, 1906.
I APPROVE your action as reported in your telegram No. 18 of the 26th instant. The action contemplated by the Canton Company is not consistent with the spirit of the Viceroy's undertaking of the 9th September, 1905. You should inform his Excellency from me that this would assuredly be considered another step in the move- ment of repudiation which has already aroused serious misgivings on the part of His Majesty's Governnent.
I should be glad if you would send me a full report by post and send copies of the correspondence to His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, and the Governor of Hong Kong.
(No. 14.) (Telegraphic.) P.
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Consul-General Fraser to Mr. Carnegie.
Hankow, May 31, 1906. VICEROY CHANG was to-day informed of the contents of your telegram No. 17 of the 25th May, and told that Kinder, on his return to Tien-tsin from leave would, of course, have many things requiring his attention to deal with before other work could be taken up by him.
His Excellency urges, nevertheless, that he should come as soon as possible for three months, and suggests the sixth moon. He adds that as a result of the delay it may be necessary for him to employ the Japanese engineer, who has been engaged as adviser for the Hankow-Szechuan line, to resurvey the section from here to Yochow.
(No. 27.)
Inclosure 7 in No. 1.
Consul-General Mansfield to Sir J. Jordun,
Canton, October 29, 1906. (Telegraphic.) P.
IN reply to your telegram No. 32, I have the honour to state that the Chinese Chief Engineer informed me last Friday that the negotiations with the American engineer Ashmead, who surveyed the line three years ago, had come to nothing. The Chief Engineer seemed to be in favour of the appointment of an Englishman. I represented to him strongly that we should consider the engagement of any one but a British subject as an ungrateful and discourteous act.
Smyth, who is now in Siam, has been proposed by the Governor of Hong Kong, and a promise is given that, on arrival of the papers, this proposal shall be privately
considered.
TAY
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