CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 201

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is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[30101]

(No. 844.) Sir,

No. 1.

[September 9.]

SECTION 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Bir Edward Grey.-(Received September 9.)

Peking, July 18, 1907.

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith an extract from an Intelligence Report which I have received from Mr. Goffe, His Majesty's Consul at Wuhu, respecting the affairs of the Anhui Railway Company.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure in No. 1.

Extract from a Report by Consul Goffe respecting the Anhui Railway Company.

The

THE affairs of the Anhui Railway Company are not in a prosperous condition. Their principal revenue is derived from a tax on rice, and as there has been no export of that article for some considerable time their funds are practically exhausted. rice merchants continue to protest against the imposition of this extra tax, but naturally their remonstrances are unheeded. A paragraph in a recent number of the local paper stated that although 4,000,000 taels were required to construct the line from Wuhu to Kuang Te Chou," only 480,000 taels had so far been subscribed, of which some 200,000 taels had already been expended.

Lord Li, as Director, has had to contend with a good deal of opposition from the gentry of the province, who have more than once complained to the Governor that the south of the province was being favoured to the detriment of the north. Whatever has been done is largely due to his initiative and energy, and his appointment as Minister to London is a serious blow to the Company. Various people have been proposed to succeed him in the Directorate of the Company, amongst others his brother, Li Chung Shuai, formerly Governor of Kuang Tung, who has, however, declined the post. The latest news is that Lord Li is to remain at the head of the Company, with a deputy in Shanghae, to supervise the management of the line. In the meantime work on the line has been practically suspended with the exception of the construction of the foundation work of two or three bridges over the creek. The foreign engineer of the line, a Norwegian named Muller, is now in America nominally for the purpose of purchasing iron bridging materials. A very large quantity of foreign cement has been imported for use on the railway.

It is reported that the gentry are now debating the question whether this line shall not be abandoned and the construction of a line to the north of the province be undertaken.

* On the south-west border of Anhui, half-way between Wuhn and Hangchow.-C. S (). [2656 i-1]

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