CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 93

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

AFFAIRS OF CHINA,

CONFIDENTIAL.

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91

C.O. 12734

[March 18.]

SECTION 1.

Rre 14 APR 0

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 18.)

(No. 84.) Sir,

WITH reference to my despatch No. 30 of the 18th ultimo, I have the honour to

Peking, February 24, 1909. transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae respecting the Whangpoo Conservancy scheme.

M. de Rijke, as Sir Pelham Warren points out, has always maintained that it was impossible for an honest man to give an estimate of the cost of carrying through the whole of the scheme from the Kiangnan Arsenal to the mouth of the Whangpoo, and it would consequently hardly be fair to blame him entirely for the miscalcution which has been made, especially as conditions have changed since his estimate was formed. It is satisfactory to know, on the authority of Mr. Scott, head of the firm of Butterfield and Swire, who has been making a tour of the Far Eastern ports, that M. de Rijke's scheme is, so far, regarded as a success by British shipping firms.

If this forecast of the scheme is confirmed, there will, I hope, be no insuperable difficulty in inducing the Chinese Government to provide the additional funds that may be required for carrying it to completion.

I have, &c.

(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

Sir,

Consul-General Sir P. Warren to Sir J. Jordan.

Shanghee, February 9, 1909. ON the 15th December, 1908, M. von Buri, the German Consul-General at this port, addressing a letter to the senior Consul suggesting that, as it had become evident from the Quarterly Reports of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board and other sources that the cost of carrying through M. de Rijke's scheme would be far higher than had been estimated, the Consular Body should ask the Conservancy Board----

1. To show by a full statement of accounts the total amount of money spent up to the end of the current year, in order that it might be clearly seen how much money is still available for the conservancy scheme.

2. Whether or not the sum of 9,200,000 taels stipulated under the Whangpoo Conservancy Agreement of the 27th September, 1905, is sufficient to carry through the whole conservancy scheme from the the Kiangnan Arsenal to the mouth of the Whangpoo.

3. If the sum is insufficient, on what further funds the practicability of the scheme is based or how else revenue and expenditure are to be adjusted.

4. To furnish the Consular Body for their information with copies of M. de Rijke's scheme of conservancy from the Kiangnan Arsensal down to the mouth of the river, with a detailed estimate based on the latest experiences.

The questions suggested by M. von Buri were addressed by the senior Consul to the Conservancy Board in a letter dated the 26th ultimo, and on the 4th instant the Board's reply, of which, with its inclosures, I inclose a copy, was received.

From this reply it appears that at the end of 1908, reckoning all sums for which they were pledged as paid, the Board had 1,440,000 Shanghae taels left available for other future expenses, which was sufficient at the present rate of expenditure for another two years' work. The estimate of 9,200,000 taels mentioned in the Whangpoo Conservancy Agreement was not M. de Rijke's, in whose opinion the sum was by no means sufficient for the work. As to the particulars asked for in M. von Buri's fourth question, M. de Rijke was not yet in a position to furnish them, his attention

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