CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 386

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government)

AFFAIRS OF CHINA,

CONFIDENTIAL.

[19897]

(No. 213.) Sir,

No. 1.

CO [June126

SE-10. 333 'Ree 6 NOV 07

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received June 17.)

Peking, May 2, 1907.

I HAVE the honour to forward to you herewith a summary of events which have occurred in China since my despatch No. 160 of the 2nd ultimo, and concerning which no separate despatches have been furnished.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure in No. 1.

Monthly Summary of Events in China.

1. Canton.

Canton-Hankow Railway.-The affairs of the Canton-Hankow Railway have continued to occupy a large share of public attention. tion on the part of the Directorate, the official Railway Bureau and the representatives After much pettifogging opposi of the Hong Kong shareholders were able, on the 10th January, to commence the work of auditing the accounts; this has been going on spasmodically ever since, but has now been completed. It may be said, however, after all the agitation, sensational charges of wholesale embezzlement and corruption, and counter-threats of a business strike and resistance to the death, to have ended in smoke, as the shareholders' money was declared to be quite safe with the exception of a small amount lent to certain Fatshau hongs, which amount the latter promptly repaid to the Company. The Railway Bureau, having in this way completed the work for which it was instituted, was abolished on the 7th April of this year. While the Bureau has whitewashed the Company, the latter seems to have made not the smallest retreat from its original attitude; it still claims to be rightly controlled by the Canton Guilds, and in spite of repeated definite orders from the Board of Communications and the Viceroy, declines to recognize as shareholders those Hong Kong subscribers who have not seen ft to hand over their money to a Directorate over which they have no control.

Numerous abortive meetings have been held, and some half-dozen persons have been proposed as occupants of the post which Cheng Tao-chai has been so long and ineffectually striving to vacate. The latest is Wu Ting-fang, to whose appointment Imperial sanction has been asked, as his Excellency otherwise declined to accept the position,

Canton-Kowloon Railway.-A certain amount of agitation against building this line with foreign help was indulged in during January and February by students, gentry, and those interested in the Canton-Hankow and Canton-Amoy schemes. perfunctory support from the Viceroy, and now that the Canton-Kowloon Agreement It met with only has actually been signed, seems to have died out. With a view to increasing Chinese influence in the affairs of the line, the Viceroy has been pressing merchants here and in Hong Kong to take up shares to the extent of 751,0001, half the proposed capital, but a proposal made, with his Excellency's approval, to apply the Canton-Hankow Railway funds, now lying idle, to this purpose, was negatived at a shareholders' meeting held on the 2nd April of this year.

By Imperial Edict his Excellency Wu Ting-fang has been appointed to represent the Chinese authorities in the management of the affairs of the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

American Boycott.-There is nothing to be noted under this heading, except the reappearance towards the end of February of boycott placards, which were at once torn down by the Viceroy's orders. These placards have now appeared in Nanning and Langchow, but as far as is known at present with no apparent effect.

[2524 r--10]