CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 394

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C.O. 17226

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

RECP

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[17313]

No. 1.

REG 2! MAY 09

[May 7.]

SECTION 2.

392

Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.

(No. 88.)

(Telegraphic.) P.

CANTON-HANKOW Railway Loan.

See your telegram No. 86 of to-day's date.

Foreign Office, May 7, 1909.

A telegram is being sent by the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank to the German and French groups proposing a meeting on Monday at Paris.

Mr. Addis has been shown your telegram, and he states that he much fears that, if further stipulations are insisted upon by the British group as a condition of ratifica- tion of the preliminary Arrangement which has just been concluded at Peking, further claims will be made by the Germans, and they will more especially demand that on the other sections of the Canton-Hankow Railway a German engineer shall be employed. Up to the present they have not questioned our claim that for the whole of this line a British engineer shall be employed. As regards the unpopularity of the French in Szechuan, he also points out that, with reference to the Hankow- Szechuan Railway, the Arrangement for that line would be made on behalf of the Chinese Central Railways Company, which, although the French have a share in it, is a British Company.

It would seem unwise by insisting upon further claims to risk wrecking the whole Arrangement, especially as the point to which we attached most importance has been secured, viz., some control over the expenditure of the loan funds; and, further, in the course of the negotiations, our claim to a British engineer for the whole of the Hankow-Canton line has hitherto been generally admitted.

Mr. Addis has been authorized to make the best arrangements he can in the circumstances, and he will continue the negotiations for a general Agreement if he finds the Germans well disposed, or make a definite arrangement in regard to further sections of the Szechuan line; he will, however, reserve these points for future con- sideration, if he finds that to insist on them will upset the whole negotiation.

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