[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[10104]
C.0. 12195
66
[March 23.]
SECTION 1.
Bro 2 APR OC
No. 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to Messrs. Pauling and Co.
Foreign Office, March 23, 1909. I LAID before Sir Edward Grey your letter of the 15th instant, inclosing a copy of a communication which has been addressed to your Company by Count Vitalis, the President of the Régie Générale de Chemins de Fer, to the effect that the French Minister of Finance recently announced that he would be unable to support any railway loan to China unless it contained a clause guaranteeing to French commercial houses the contracts for the construction of the line and the supply of material.
I am to inform you that this report does not affect the attitude of His Majesty's Government in this matter, as explained in the letter from this Office of the 11th instant. Moreover, no confirmation of this report has as yet been received.
In these circumstances Sir Edward Grey does not see his way for the present to send any instructions, beyond those already sent, to His Majesty's Minister at Peking in regard to the support to be accorded to you in this matter.
I am to express regret that it has not been possible to send a reply to your letter at an earlier date.
[2193 -1
am, &c.
(Signed)
F. A. CAMPBELL.
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