CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 34

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capital to the Viceroy on the strength of an offer made

to him by Herr Cordes in 1905.

I proceeded therefore to make enquiries of the Wai

#u Pu as to their telegraphic instructions to the Vienroy,

and was informed that their only knowledge of the loan

negotiations came from outside sourges and went little

beyond the bare fact that the Viceroy was endeavouring to

raise a foreign loan. They were ignorant of the amount,

object, or terms of the projected loan. The Viceroy had

not kept the Central Government informed in any way,

and

they had therefore telegraphed to him that he should not

settle with Wr.llllier before reporting on his proccnd-

ings. This step had been taken, not, as I had suggested

to them, at the dictation of the German Minister,

but

because of the engagements which had been entered into

with regard to the raising of foreign capital for railway

construction South and West of Hankow. The Grand Secret-

ary Na Tung then proceeded to rehearse the engagements

made in September 1903 by the Wai Yu Pu with this Legation

and in September 1905 by the Viceroy Shang Chih-tung.

The