CO129-344 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 627

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Memorandum was not communicated to your Department at

the time but he considers that at the present stage it

is impossible, without risk of an imputation of bad

faith, to depart from its terms which were intended to

convey to the French Government the acquiescence of His

Majesty's Government in the principle of equal French

participation and control and which were by them inter-

preted in that sense.

6

Sir E. Grey agrees with Lord Elgin in his view

that the claim of the French Ambassador exceeds the

promises given to His Majesty's Consul-General at Han-

kow by the Wuchang Viceroy on September 9th. 1905, but

Monsieur Cambon no doubt bases his claim on the assump-

tion that His Majesty's Government are advancing simi-

lar pretensions. In any case this question appears to

be one which can be settled later, and to be independ-

ent of the question of Anglo-French participation.

7

With regard to the point raised by Lord Elgin that

the Wuchang Viceroy might accuse His Majesty's Govern-

ment of bad faith, I am to point out that the Viceroy,

though fully aware of the proposal (put forward in con-

sequence of a private arrangement between the British

and

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