4
engagement, to ask Mr. Bourne, M.I.C.E., London, who was suggested to me by Mr. Kinder last November, to send out the names and testimonials of two or three men.
(Translation.) Sir,
I have, &c. (Signed)
E. H. FRASER.
Inclosure 6 in No. 1.
Viceroy Chang to Consul-General Fraser.
Wuchang, March 5, 1907. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 28th February, in which you state that in the Agreement for the Yueh Han Railway Redemption Loan there was an undertaking that, if foreign engineers were to be employed, preference would be given to British engineers in the first place, and that notwithstanding that the Canton section had become a commercial undertaking, that fact could under no circumstances be taken advantage of to evade the undertaking.
I would observe that the Rederaption Loan Agreement does not expressly state that preference was to be given to British engineers in the first place, but in the covering despatch to you there was a statement that if a loan was obtained from Great Britain for construction purposes then one-half of the engineers employed would be of the nationality of the lending nation and the other half Japanese, and the line would be constructed in sections.
This statement referred to a loan for construction purposes, and so did not appear in the Agreement for the Redemption Loan, as was thoroughly understood at the time. Now, since we have not obtained a loan for construction work, we are free to employ the services of engineers irrespective of nationality. However, in view of our especially friendly relations with Great Britain, and of the fact that Great Britain has many engineers of note, I am very willing to obtain their services, therefore during last year I discussed with you on many occasions my desire to obtain the services of Mr. Kinder, but in the first place he long delayed his coming, and then suddenly I heard of his illness and death. For this reason at our interview last December I asked you verbally to engage a good engineer for me, and I also wrote to you to the same effect, but I have not yet learned whether your search has been successful or not. In brief, I am willing to employ British engineers, but it is not necessary to drag in the matter of a construc- tion loan. As for the nationality of the engineers employed by Canton, I leave it to them to choose the best they can, and I cannot interfere in the matter. With regard to Hunan, I can assist them with my advice.
Compliments.
(Card of Chang Chih-tung.)
5
The Viceroy then repeated his desire to provide the Hunan section with a British engineer, and asked me to apply home for one, and excused himself from seeing me on the ground of ill-health.
I had prepared a letter to Mr. Bourne asking his aid when, on the 11th March, Mr. T. A. Ross, who last year laid out the trace of the line between Kiukiang and Nanchang and made detailed plans for bridges, &c., wrote from Shanghae applying for the post of Chief Engineer to the Viceroy, which one of his Excellency Sheng's Secretaries told him was open.
I sent his letter, which stated generally his experience and qualifications, to the Secretary Chan, who replied on the 12th instant that his Excellency would engage Mr. Ross, subject to the answers to his Excellency's telegrams to Mr. Ross' former Chinese employers proving satisfactory, at a total salary of 1,090 dollars a-month.
Of this I informed Mr. Ross by telegram, and, as several days passed without further word from the Viceroy, I suggested his approaching his Excellency Shêng. This he did, and was assured that his Excellency, who had vainly offered him the post of Manager of the railway from the Ping-Hsiang mines at 700 dollars a-month with the chief control of construction of its intended extension at an increased salary, had recommended him to his Excellency Chang in the most laudatory terms.
To my surprise, on the morning of the 20th March Mr. Chan sent me a note reporting that, as Shông and Ch'en, one of the Kiangsi Railway Managers' replies were unsatisfactory, Mr. Ross could be employed only as Assistant Engineer at 790 dollars a-month.
In spite of my telegraphing the purport of this note, Mr. Ross, whose testimonials I had forwarded on the 17th to Mr. Chan, came here on the 24th and obtained from Li Yu-fen, the Head of the Kiangsi Railways, a most laudatory telegram, which also I sent to the Viceroy, together with his offer to serve as Executive Engineer under an English Chief and to resurvey the Hunan section at 600 taels a-month,
Mr. Ross left for home on
His Excellency, however, declined to improve his offer.
the 28th March, and I sent on my letter to Mr. Bourne.
The thirteenth extract in my despatch No. 83 of the 22nd December, 1906, may partially explain his Excellency Chang's action, or it may be, as Mr. Ross suggested, due to Japanese influence, which has been strengthened by the recent engagement From of ten Japanese engineers for the railway from Kiukiang to Nanchang.
Mr. Chan's talk at a recent visit I fear that the Viceroy has not the least idea of the foreign staff necessary for the building of the trunk line nor of the time and trouble required for a detailed working survey. His Excellency seems to imagine that with the original survey by the engineers of the China Development Company the new engineers can get to work at once, whereas there is every likelihood that not one of the requisite pegs set down by those engineers can now be found.
The only encouraging points in the incident are to be found in Mr. Chan's assurances that the Viceroy professed to have seven-tenths of the say in deciding on a Chief Engineer for Hunan, and that if a salary even of 2,000 dollars a-month were really indispensable to obtain a first-class man, it would be paid.
I am sending copies of this despatch to the Hong Kong Government and to His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General at Canton.
I have, &c.
E. II. FRASER.
(No. 28.) Sir,
Inclosure 7 in No. 1.
Consul-General Fraser to Sir J. Jordan.
Hankow, April 2, 1907. IN continuation of my despatch No. 17 of the 5th March, I have the honour to report further action by the Viceroy towards obtaining a British Engineer-in-chief for the Hunan section of the Hankow-Canton Railway.
On the 6th March 1 sent his Excellency Chang a note in answer to his letter brought by Mr. Chan, in which I laid stress on the 1905 Loan being granted out of consideration for his Excellency's position and on the Kuangtung Company owing its existence to British aid in making possible the resumption of the American Concession, as well as on the fact that at the time his Excellency claimed to be fully empowered to deal with that railway, and asked his Excellency to telegraph strongly to the Company through the Canton Viceroy,
Two days latter he replied asserting that the Throne had recently left Hukuang out in dealing with the Canton Railway's troubles, but that in deference to my repeated requests he would telegraph for news to his Excellency Chou-Fu and let me know the result. This I still await.
Your Excellency,
(Signed)
Inclosure 8 in No. 1.
Consul-General Fraser to Viceroy Chang.
Hankow, March 6, 1907. I HAD the honour to receive your note, brought me by Mr. Chan, yesterday, in reply to mine on the subject of engaging engineers for the Yueh-ifan Railway, in which you state that there was no definite undertaking in the Agreement that Canton is at liberty to choose engineers of any nationality it thinks fit without interference from your Excellency, but that you are in a position to assist Hunan with your advice.
I requested Mr. Chan to be good enough to apprise you of my views, and, though When the Redemption doubtless he has done so, I beg to put them also in writing. Loan was raised, His Britannic Majesty's Government and the Governor of Hong Kong, actuated by friendship towards China, and in view of the fact that your Excellency was
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