CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 160

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and Governors wishing to borrow for any urgent public

purpose should be required as a preliminary to memorial-

ise the Throne stating clearly the object of the propoand

loan and the sournes from which it was proposed to pay157

the interest and refund the principal, The Throne was

to refer the memorial to the Board of Finance for report,

and if their report was favourable, the provincial

authorities would be authorised to proceed with the

negotiations and submit the final agreement to the Board

for their approval, after which the remaining Tomalities

required in the case of a foreign loan could be pro-

ceeded with. H.B.wished to point out to me as a friend

that the course adopted by Chang Kung pao could only

peault in waste of time and disappointment on both sidos;

sinoc unless the above procedure were complied with,

any agreement we might come to would most certainly be

thrown out by the Board of Finance on reference to them,

I asked H.3.1f the new regulations also applied to

railway loans. He replied that it applied to all foreign

loane, I presume from this that the new regulations may

be taken as replacing and tacitly rescinding the

prohibition of 1905, but I did not put this question

to Na tung. that he said left me in no doubt as to the

course to be followed in the present instance, and I

shall be glad if you will be so kind as to communiceste

the substance of it to HI.E.Chang.

The general impression I derived from la tung's

TOMATKA MAD first, that the attitude of the Peking

authorities towards foreign loans has undergone a fresh

ohange, they are preparod to recognise the necessity for these under special circumstances but desire to

retain