CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 785

I discussed the question with His Excellency Liang Tun-yen. I reminded him of the principal steps in the negotiations which are recapitulated in Mr. Bland's memorandum, and stated that as far as I could understand, these negotiations were held in check by certain claims of the Belgian Minister which were based on Sheng's letter of June 26th 1898 and on the unredeemed bonds. I expressed a hope that the Belgian contentions, which had no rational basis, would not be listened to, and warned His Excellency that if they were seriously entertained by the Chinese Government, I should be compelled to protest vigorously. I produced a copy of Chang Chih-tung's letter of September 9th 1905, which His Excellency knew of but had not read, and he readily acknowledged that it gave us clear preferential rights. According to him the Waiwupu did not admit the Belgian claims, but the "Belgian representative had been told that there was nothing to prevent his people from quoting terms for the loan. To this I said there was no objection provided that the conditions of Chang's engagement were borne in mind and the British financiers given