[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 675
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[17303]
No. 1.
Foreign Office to Colonial Office.
[May 26.]
SECTION 1.
(Confidential.) Sir,
Foreign Office, May 26, 1908.
I HAVE laid before the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs your letter of the 19th instant, in which you transmit a copy of a telegram from the Governor of Hong Kong deprecating French control of the Hankow-Canton Railway, and state that the Secretary of State for the Colonies would be glad to be informed what the effect would be of the contemplated Anglo-French arrangement, especially as regards British control over the line.
As appears from Sir E. Grey's despatch No. 151 of the 8th ultimo to His Majesty's Ambassador in Paris, to which you allude, the arrangements with regard to the Hankow-Canton and Peking-Hankow lines are closely connected.
After making inquiries of the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation, it has been ascertained that the present position of affairs is as follows:-
Mr. Hillier, the Agent in Peking of the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation, is carrying on active negotiations for a joint British, French, and possibly German loan, to enable the Chinese Government to redeem the Peking-Hankow Railway, as they have the option of doing this year under the original agreement.
This loan will be a purely financial transaction, and if it is arranged the railway will fall entirely under Chinese control. At the present time the engineers and the materials are supplied from France and Belgium. In return for the British groups agreeing to continue to allow French and Belgian engineers exclusively to be employed, and the materials to come, as before, from France and Belgium, the French group will leave the British group a free hand as regards the same matters on the Canton-Hankow Railway, should a joint loan for the construction of this latter line be agreed upon. Negotiations for this latter loan are, however, at present at a standstill.
It will therefore be seen that, if the Peking-Hankow redemption loan is arranged, the British position with regard to the Hankow-Canton line should be on the lines desired by the Governor of Hong Kong, in so far as that the French will make no claim as regards this railway for the employment of French engineers or the ordering of French materials.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
F. A. CAMPBELL.
[2972 cc-1]
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 675
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[17303]
No. 1.
Foreign Office to Colonial Office.
[May 26.]
SECTION 1.
(Confidential.) Sir,
Foreign Office, May 26, 1908. I HAVE laid before the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs your letter of the 19th instant, in which you transmit a copy of a telegram from the Governor of Hong Kong deprecating French control of the Hankow-Canton Railway, and state that the Secretary of State for the Colonies would be glad to be informed what the effect would be of the contemplated Anglo-French arrangement, especially as regards British control over the line.
As appears from Sir E. Grey's despatch No. 151 of the 8th ultimo to His Majesty's Ambassador in Paris, to which you allude, the arrangements with regard to the Hankow-Canton and Peking-Hankow lines are closely connected.
After making inquiries of the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation, it has been ascertained that the present position of affairs is as follows:-
Mr. Hillier, the Agent in Peking of the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation, is carrying on active negotiations for a joint British, French, and possibly German loan, to enable the Chinese Government to redeem the Peking- Hankow Railway, as they have the option of doing this year under the original agreement.
This loan will be a purely financial transaction, and if it is arranged the railway will fall entirely under Chinese control. At the present time the engineers and the materials are supplied from France and Belgium. In return for the British groups agreeing to continue to allow French and Belgian engineers exclusively to be employed, and the materials to come, as before, from France and Belgium, the French group will leave the British group a free hand as regards the same matters on the Canton-Hankow Railway, should a joint loan for the construction of this latter line be agreed upon. Negotiations for this latter loan are, however, at present at a standstill.
It will therefore be seen that, if the Peking-Hankow redemption loan is arranged, the British position with regard to the Hankow-Canton line should be on the lines desired by the Governor of Hong Kong, in so far as that the French will make no claim as regards this railway for the employment of French engineers or the ordering of French materials.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
F. A. CAMPBELL.
[2972 cc-1]
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