[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[11676]
No. 1.
[April 6.]
SECTION 1.
Sir F. Lascelles to Sir Edward Grey,~(Received April 6.)
(No. 144.)
Berlin, March 28, 1908. Sir,
WITH reference to Sir J. Jordan's telegram No. 12 of the 13th January last, I have the honour to report that the prospectus for the German share in the 5 per Cent. Imperial Chinese Tien-tsin-Pukow (Tien-tsin-Yangtsze) State Railway Loan was published in the "North German Gazette" yesterday. Copy of this prospectus I have the honour to inclose herewith.* The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank are issuing the loan, and subscriptions are invited through the principal banking houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfort, Bremen, Cologne, and Munich.
I would not have ventured to trouble you with this information, which is doubtless already in the possession of the Foreign Office from other sources, were it not for the fact that the semi-official "North German Gazette" in its issue of to-day publishes a long account of German participation in railway construction in China, with a view to laying before the public detailed information in regard to this line, which, says the paper, will be an important undertaking in the interests of the German settlements in the Far East.
The North German Gazette says that after German financial circles had secured a firm basis for German trade in the Far East by the foundation of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank in 1889, the idea arose of giving an outlet to German capital in the construction of railways in China. Checked at first by the Chino-Japanese war, this enterprise received considerable encouragement by the Kiautschao Arrangement of the 6th March, 1898, which gave Germany the right to construct three railways in the Province of Shantung, i.e., Kiaotschao-Tsinanfu, and two other lines connecting Kiaotschao and Tsinanfu with the southern frontier of the province. Of the lines for which Concessions were obtained under the Kiaotschao Agreement, only the Kiaotschao-Tsinan has been carried through. It is in a most flourishing condition, paying dividends of 41/2 per cent, and increasing daily in traffic.
German financiers, however, have always wished to join the purely German lines with the general Chinese railway system. With this object in view they concluded the Agreement of the 2nd September, 1898, with the British and Chinese Corporation and the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank to construct the Tien-tsin-Yangtsze line. The capital was to be raised jointly, and the British and German spheres of interest were described. The paper then shortly recounts the negotiations preceding the signature of the Agreement on the 13th January last, and the division of the undertaking and the loan between the two groups.
A detailed description of the country which the line traverses is then given, and a glowing account is given of the rich possibilities which this line will open up, as well as the advantages which it will offer to the Shantung railway system.
I have, &c. (Signed)
FRANK C. LASCELLES.
* Not printed.
[2921 ƒ-1]
386
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[11676]
No. 1.
[April 6.]
SECTION 1.
!
Sir F. Lascelles to Sir Edward Grey,~(Received April 6.)
(No. 144.)
Berlin, March 28, 1908. Sir,
WITH reference to Sir J. Jordan's telegram No. 12 of the 13th January last, I have the honour to report that the prospectus for the German share in the 5 per Cent. Imperial Chinese Tien-tsin-Pukow (Tien-tsin-Yangtsze) State Railway Loan was published in the "North German Gazette" yesterday. Copy of this prospectus I have The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank are issuing the loan, the honour to inclose herewith.* and subscriptions are invited through the principal banking houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfort, Bremen, Cologne, and Munich.
I would not have ventured to trouble you with this information, which is doubtless already in the possession of the Foreign Office from other sources, were it not for the fact that the semi-official "North German Gazette" in its issue of to-day publishes a long account of German participation in railway construction in China, with a view to laying before the public detailed information in regard to this line, which, says the paper, will be an important undertaking in the interests of the German settlements in the Far East.
The North German Gazette says that after German financial circles had secured a firm basis for German trade in the Far East by the foundation of the Deutsch- Asiatische Bank in 1889, the idea arose of giving an outlet to German capital in the construction of railways in China. Checked at first by the Chino-Japanese war, this enterprise received considerable encouragement by the Kiautschao Arrangement of the 6th March, 1898, which gave Germany the right to construct three railways in the Province of Shantung, i.e., Kiaotschao-Tsinanfu, and two other lines connecting Kiao- tschao and Tsinanfu with the southern frontier of the province. Of the lines for which Concessions were obtained under the Kiaotschao Agreement, only the Kiaotschao- Tsinan has been carried through. It is in a most flourishing condition, paying divi- dends of 44 per cent, and increasing daily in traffic.
German financiers, however, have always wished to join the purely German lines with the general Chinese railway system. With this object in view they concluded the Agreement of the 2nd September, 1898, with the British and Chinese Corporation and the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank to construct the Tien-tsin-Yangtsze line. The capital was to be raised jointly, and the British and German spheres of interest were described. The paper then shortly recounts the negotiations preceding the signature of the Agreement on the 13th January last, and the division of the undertaking and the loan between the two groups.
A detailed description of the country which the line traverses is then given, and a glowing account is given of the rich possibilities which this line will open up, as well as the advantages which it will offer to the Shantung railway system.
I have, &c. (Signed)
FRANK C. LASCELLES.
* Not printed.
[2921 ƒ-1]
C
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.