CO129-344 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 331

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DRAFT.

Hankow for the purpose of submitting pro-

posals for a loan. The French Consul-general

further complicated matters by asking the

Vicoroy to receive "the Director of the

Banque de l'Indo-Chine, M. Casenave,'

" who

"had come to Hankow accompanied by an English-

man named Bland, having some business to dis-

cuss personally with "the Viceroy. The

Viceroy appears to have refused to hold any

communication with K. Casenave, and the

only result of Mr. Bland's ill-advised action

was to prejudice the whole negotiations.

The British Consul General endeavoured to re-

move the Viceroy's suspicions by officially

communicating to him the substance of a

Memorandum by Mr. Bland, the terms of which

are important in view of what has since

occurred