CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 144

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copy.

No.367.

Confidential,

sir,

30124

1STP 3 1907

PEC

C. 0.

33911

Pa 23 SEP 07

25 July, 1907.

141

Fr.Hillier

to Dr.Townsend.

13 July.

Ur.1111er

to Er.Fraser.

23 July.

The enclosed report of the loan negotiations at

Hankow which Mr.Hillier has addressed to his principals

in London may be of interest as showing the conclusions

which have been forged upon him by this abortive

attempt to arrange a provincial loan, These are briefly

that no sound progress can be expected in railway

construction if the initiative is left to the provincial

authorities and that the obligations for this purpose

should be undertaken in the name of the Imperial Govern-

ment. Mr.Hillier goes on to outline a scheme, for an

international railway loan of a somewhat ambitious

oharacter with regard to which he sought an expression

of my viene on his return to Peking. Even were such an

international combination desirable, a point on which

The Right Honourable

ato.

Sir Edward Grey Bart., M.P.

etc.

etc.

I