CO129-347 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [4-6] — Page 310

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of Chang Chih Tung (formerly Governor-General of the Hu-

-kuang and now Councillor of State whose influence with

that of Yuan Shih Kai is predominant in the Councils of

China) with reference to the loan negotiations for the

Hankow Railway is sufficiently significant. He has been

desirous of a loan for construction for the last 3 years

but prefers to delay the whole work rather than to deal

with a Company in which the French have any connection

whatever. Mr. Clementi who has recently concluded a journey

across China from Turkestan and who has travelled on

several occasions in Yunnan, Szechuan and the Liang Kuang

Provinces bears evidence to the intensity of this dislike

and suspicion. He says that at an interview with him in

October, 1906, Lung Chi Kuang (3), by birth a

native of Mengtsze (

) in Yunnan and at that time

Taotai of Liuchou-fu in Kuangsi, but now stationed as

Taotai at Lungchou on the Tongking-Kuangsi frontier,

described the feeling of himself and his fellow-provincials

towards the French by using the word "hate" (✯ ); and

that in crossing Yunnan from East to West in November and

December, 1906, he noticed the same unpopularity of the

French which he had previously remarked upon in paragraphs

45 to 53 of his confidential report of a journey from

South