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lency is also moved by the recollection of incidents when
he was at Canton in 1884 -5, of the high-handed manner in
which the French Concession here was extended, of the Nan-
ch'ang onse last year and possibly of the French support
of the Belgian claim to priority in the metter of the con-
struction of the redeemed trunk line to Canton.
The Viceroy held firmly that the bank's relations with
French or Germans were a domestic concern and could not
be forced upon the notice of third parties. In view of
Mr Bland's memo enclosed in my despatch No 80 of the 13th
December 1906 His Excellency's position seems a strong one
Fe explained in vain that the lenders were to be a
British Company registered in Bondon and under British
protection only.
Even when we suggested substituting the British Chin-
ese Corporation His Excellency enquired suspiciously
whether its shareholders were all British and whethe~ any
were Chinese; and in spite of assurances that in British
Companies all nationalities might hold shares and that
some Chinese officials, whose example Hie Excellency was
free to follow, held shares in the Corporation, he did
not absolutely assent to the substitution. I was influenced
in putting this suggestion to His Excellency for Mr Hillier
by
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