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Engineering Company (Limited) to come to terms, and that an arrangement was possible if steps were taken to save the Viceroy's "face." He confirmed Mr. Liang's account of the negotiations which had taken place with Major Nathan, and said he had found it quite impossible to extract any definite offer from the latter. On his return to Tien-tsin he would, however, make another effort to come to terms with Major Nathan,
I telegraphed the substance of what had passed at these interviews to Major Nathan, who telegraphed on the 4th instant that at a meeting between Chang, the Tien-tsin Customs Taotai, and himself it was decided that he should submit proposals for a settlement to the Taotai, who, if he considered them satisfactory, would in due course approach the Viceroy.
From a telegram received to-day from Mr. Hopkins I learn that the Customs Taotai is acting as intermediary between Major Nathan and the Viceroy, and that negotiations are being reopened. In order to strengthen Major Nathan's hands I have repeated to Mr. Hopkins your telegram No. 80, and instructed him to let the Viceroy know that, while willing to promote an amicable adjustment of the matter, His Majesty's Government cannot allow confiscation of the Company's property.
I have also offered, should it be considered likely to facilitate matters, to dispatch Sir Alexander Hosie to take part in the negotiations, but have stipulated that I should receive an assurance beforehand that the Viceroy is prepared to accept this method of settlement.
That the original transfer was defective from a Treaty point of view is, I think, conclusively shown in Sir Ernest Satow's despatch No. 183 of the 24th May, 1904, and in the present instance the Chinese urge the additional contention that rights are claimed under it which were not enjoyed by the old Company, and which it was ont of Chang's power to confer upon any one. Chang Yen Mao himself denies that the old Company had exclusive mining rights over the whole area known as the "Estate Kaiping Coal-field," and Major Nathan's only evidence on the point is that in practice no private mines were allowed to be worked within that area.
The whole question is eminently one for friendly adjustment on the basis of accomplished facts, but having regard to all the afforts which have been made in this direction in the past, and the attitude of the Viceroy as evinced in his interview with Mr. Hopkins, one cannot be sanguine that the present attempt is likely to be more successful than those which have preceded it.
I have, &c.
(No. 36.) Sir,
(Signed)
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul-General Hopkins to Sir J. Jordan.
J. N. JORDAN.
Tien-tsin, June 28, 1907. WITH reference to my telegram of the 26th instant, reporting the result of my interview with the Viceroy Yuan on the subject of the Concession granted to a Chinese Company to mine coal in an area in which the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (Limited) claim exclusive rights, I have now the honour to furnish the following report :---
I had naturally put myself in communication, before the interview with the Viceroy, with Major Nathan, so as to acquaint myself with the grounds on which his Company claim that the recent Concession to the Luanchou Mining Company is an infringement of their rights, and also to know what position Major Nathan "took as to any practical means of reaching some friendly arrangement. On both these points I went to the interview with clear ideas as to the nature of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company's claim, and as to the spirit in which they desired to meet the Viceroy.
I may explain, in regard to the passage in your telegram of yesterday, running, "within the area of the land covered by the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company's title-deeds," that none of this mining area in question is covered by title-deeds registered in this Consulate, the locality not being an open port, and that only particular parcels of land, as I learn from Major Nathan, are covered by Chinese
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title-deeds at all. But the Engineering and Mining Company base their claim to their exclusive mining rights on the following clause in the deed of transfer of the 19th February, 1901, from the old Chinese Engineering and Mining Company to the new Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (Limited):
"First, all the lands, mines, and coal-fields, commonly known as the Estate Kaiping Coal-field, situate in the Province of Chihli aforesaid, and including all the mines and seams of coal and minerals geologically connected with the mines and seams of coal known at Tongshan, Hse Shan, Pan Pe Tien, Ma Chia Kou, Wu Shu Chiang, Chao Ko Chuang, and Linsi, and the exclusive right to search and mine for coal and minerals within the area and coal-field aforesaid, and all other rights and privileges enjoyed in connection therewith, and all other, the interest of the said Chinese Engineering and Mining Company therein."
No map of the "Estate Kaiping Coal-field" accompanies my copy of this deed of transfer, nor do I know if such a map has ever been made, and it might, of course, have been an issue of fact whether any given points in the Viceroy's Concession were or were not within the area of the "Estate Kaiping Coal-field." But there can be no doubt that some of the points named in the Memorial submitted by the promoters of the Luanchou Mining Company to the Viceroy are amongst those specifically named in the above-quoted clause of the deed of transfer. Under the circumstances, I should have liked to put it to Mr. Detring (who is one of the parties to the deed of transfer of the 19th February, 1901, and has a first-hand knowledge of all that was done) whether the proposed Concession was, in his opinion, an invasion of the Mining Company's rights as received from the old Company, but Major Nathan was unwilling that Mr. Detring should be consulted, and I refrained.
When I met the Viceroy, therefore, at 1 F.M. on the 26th instant I opened our conversation by telling him that the Agent and General Manager of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company had recently seen in a newspaper a summary of a Memorial submitting a scheme and regulations for opening coal mines in Luanchou, and that being much disturbed by the tenor of this document, he had come to me and asked for my assistance, as he considered that his Company's rights were infringed. I said that I had not been able to see the Chinese text of the deed of transfer, but according to the English text the proposed Concession was not consonant with the language of the transfer. Major Nathan, however, was anxious to act in a conciliatory manner.
The Viceroy at once replied, and I do not think I can add much to the terms of my telegram as to the tenor of his language. He knew what I had come to see him about from my note requesting an interview, was quite ready for me, and did not beat about the bush. The Chinese authorities, he said, have never recognized the Limited Company. The deed of transfer that I mentioned they do not recognize; they have no knowledge of it. Chang had been cheated by Hoover and the others ("shou Huwei p'ien" was his expression), aud Chang had been ordered to recover the properties. The He referred to some whole transaction is not recognized by the Chinese Government. conversation he had had about two years ago with Sir Ernest Satow as to the new Company having to carry out some course of action, "and," he said, they have not done so."
But I am not clear as to what his Excellency referred to, whether to some proposal made at that interview, or whether to the "Memorandum," which the High Court directed should be put into effect. When I asked him if he knew that all the Chinwangtao property had been registered in this Consulate since 1901 as British land, he "knew nothing of it." Speaking of the Limited Company's land at Tongshan and its vicinity, he remarked that it had never been registered in the yamêns of the territorial officials. His Excellency also dwelt on the distress caused by the high price of coal as a motive for giving a Concession for the opening of further mines.
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As it was impossible to discuss any modus vivendi respecting the proposed Concession on the basesthat the Engineering and Mining Company (Limited) has no legal existence, 1 said that if his Excellency held such a view it was useless for me to prolong our conversation, and took my leave.
With regard to the Viceroy's real intentions respecting the Concession to the Luanchou Mining Company, I see no reason to think it is not a serious plan. The project has been known of for many months, though I had not heard till lately that it had the definite support of the Viceroy. But the following is his Excellency's Rescript to the Memorial of the promoters :--
"I have considered this Memorial and approve the scheme for opening coal mines at Luanchou and the regulations for raising share capital. The matter will be reported
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