CO129-353 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 199

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

C. 0195 41116

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

(36623]

No. 1.

[October 26.]

FREED

SECTION

10 NC, 08

1.

Sír,

Foreign Office to British and Chinese Corporation.

Foreign Office, October 26, 1908. I AM directed by Secretary to Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th instant in regard to the Shanghae and Ningpo Railway.

I am to inform you that, under date of the 5th August last, His Majesty's Minister at Peking reported that the Memorial of the Board of Communications with the Imperial Rescript of the 15th April, to which reference is made in your letter under reply, was not made known to him in any way officially, but was brought to his notice by Mr. Bland. Mr. Bland informed Sir J. Jordan at the time that he considered that the control of the line, being apparently handed over by the Board to the Kiangsu and Chekiang Railway Companies, the Loan Agreement was contravened. Though the arrangement thus made between the Board and the Companies did not accord with some important provisions of the Loan Agreement, it seemed to Sir J. Jordan, however, to be explainable as a Chinese method of smoothing over strong local objections which the Board would find means to vary according as it was found in practice to conflict with external obligations under the Loan Agreement, and Sir J. Jordan felt that in any case, before embarking upon a serious demand for the revocation of an Imperial Decree in such a case, he must be satisfied that the Chinese Government really meant to set the Agreement directly at naught. He therefore advised Mr. Bland to ignore the Rescript in question for the time being, and on all occasions to press steadily for the proper fulfilment of the terms of the Loan Agreement. No official steps were considered by Sir J. Jordan necessary until it was proved that the scheme between the Board and the Companies was real, and not a mere paper concession to popular feeling.

With regard to the appointments of a Managing Director and Chief Engineer under the Loan Agreement, Sir J. Jordan was aware that the reason why these appointments were not made as rapidly as might have been expected was that in the case of the first the post was not sought after because of the difficulties anticipated from the provinces, and that at least one British engineer had declined the other partly for similar reasons. These appointments were the subject of repeated representations by Sir J. Jordan to the Chinese Government, and in July he was informed that Taotai Shih Chaotseng had been appointed Managing Director of the line, while Mr. Foord subsequently accepted the post of Chief Engineer. According to a statement made to Sir J. Jordan on the 14th August, the Agreement with Mr. Foord was then already signed.

In a subsequent despatch, Sir J. Jordan reported that he had drawn Mr. Liang's attention to the fact that the recent action of the Board of Communications conflicted with the terms of the Loan Agreement, and that the terms of the Engineer's engagement further showed a tendency to disregard the terms of that Agreement, and were such that a British subject could not under ordinary circumstances have accepted them. He further represented that he had as yet taken no action in regard to the matter, as he wished to trust to the good faith of the Board of Communications in loyally carrying out the stipulations of the Loan Agreement in spite of these preliminary acts.

Mr. Liang, in reply, stated that he had no hesitation in giving an explicit assurance that the terms of the Loan Agreement would be respected. When the Loan Agreement was ready for signature on the 6th March last the provincial Delegates had endeavoured to make a certain alteration in Article 17 concerning the position of the Chief Engineer; their wishes had, however, been overruled by the Wai-wu Pu, and Mr. Bland had, in the course of a discussion on the subject, himself suggested that steps should be taken subsequently to effect what the provincial Delegates required. The arrangement between the Board of Communications and the provincial Companies was merely the outcome of this episode. Sir J. Jordan said he felt sure that Mr. Bland had said nothing to warrant the conclusion of an

[1983 cc-1]