!
2
9th February, summarising the acts protested against by Mr. Bland, and asking, in the interests of an honest and economical construction of the railways, for a full explanation from the Board of Communications. Information, moreover, reached Sir J. Jordan about the same time which confirmed in every respect the previous reports as to the engineering defects in the portion of the line which had been constructed by the Kiangsu bureau, and the unsatisfactory nature of the position with regard to the undertaking generally. Sir J. Jordan laid stress in his protest to Prince Ch'ing on the fact that, although neither the managing director nor the chief engineer had been able to enter upon the performance of their duties owing to the obstruction of the provincial bureaus and that there had therefore been little or no occasion for the expenditure of the loan funds on railway purposes, nevertheless sums amounting to between 800,000l. and 900,0001. had been transferred from the loan funds in London to the credit of the railways account, and to the order of the Yu-Chuan Pu in Shanghae, and requisitions in large amounts had been made on the Shanghae account by the Yu-Chuan Pu These requisitions had moreover in every case been made upon forms signed by Mr. Liang Shih-yi, presented through the Chiao-tung Bank. Three of them, numbered 15, 16, and 17 respectively, which had been presented by that bank to the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank at Shanghae on the 31st December, amounted in all to 330,000 taels, of which 150,000 taels were stated to be for "formation" and 130,000 taels for "bridges." Article 14 of the Loan Agreement lays down, however, that "requisitions on the loan funds will be drawn in amounts to suit the progress of construction of the railway by orders on the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation signed by the Yu-ch'uan Pu and its duly authorised representative, and accompanied by his certificates or those of the said board stating the nature and cost of the work to be paid for. Such amounts as may be required for expenditure in China may be transferred under the instructions of the Yu'ch'uan Pu at their discretion, to Shanghae, the transfer being effected through the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation, and the transferred funds shall remain on deposit with that bank until required for railway purposes." It is quite evident, therefore, that the loan funds were intended to remain in London, receiving interest at 4 per cent, until required in China and should then have been left at the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation at Shanghae until actually required for payments for railway account and it is equally evident that in transferring the above sums from London to Shanghae before the managing director and chief engineer had been allowed to enter properly upon their duties, and therefore before it was possible to incur any large expenditure, both the letter and the spirit of the article had been distinctly violated. It was also a direct violation of the article to hand over the money to the Chiao-tung Bank when the Ta Ch'ing Bank existed for the transaction of Government banking business, on the requisitions described above. Such requisitions were, in the circumstances, utterly inadequate and did not comply in any way with the certificate of the Board of Communications required by article 14.
Sir J. Jordan's note to Prince Ching was still unanswered when he received further reliable information as to the position and prospects of the railway of so unsatisfactory a character-it was for instance found that the loan funds were being issued by the Board of Communications to the provincial bureaux-that he arranged for a special interview with the Grand Secretary Natung which took place on the 2nd March, when he placed before his Excellency a memorandum containing a full statement of the deplorable situation, and urged him strongly, as a member of the Grand Council, to devise some remedial measures as soon as possible. His Excellency said that the affairs of the Board of Communications, whose president, Chén-pi, had recently been dismissed, were being carefully enquired into by the Prince Regent himself, and Sir J. Jordan took advantage of this observation to request that Ilis Highness's attention should be specially invited to the question of the Shanghae- Ningpo Railway. His Excelleney promised that this would be done as soon as he had had a consultation with the acting president of the Board of Communications.
The Grand Secretary was unfortunately taken ill on the day after the interview, and this, and the death of his mother a few days later, prevented Sir J. Jordan from seeing him again. As information received from Shanghae indicated that matters were going from bad to worse on the railway, Sir J. Jordan addressed a note to Prince Ching on the 29th March, in which he directly requested His Highness to bring the contents of his memorandum of the 2nd March before the Grand Council, and indirectly suggested that the assistance of the Prince Regent himself should be invoked to put an end to the irregular proceedings of the provincial bureaux.
3
Since that date Sir J. Jordan has lost no opportunity of pressing the irregularities on the Shanghae-Ningpo Railway on the attention of the Imperial Government, but neither his verbal nor written requests have produced any tangible result, beyond the despatch of the Chinese chief engineer of the Kalgan Railway to make a special
report.
A further breach of the Loan Agreement occurred in April, when the Kiangsu Bureau issued a circular calling for tenders for locomotives, in which it was stipulated that they must be supplied "by well-known German manufacturers."
Sir J. Jordan drew Prince Ching's attention to the matter on the 13th May, and pointed out that under article 18 of the Agreement all foreign materials should be purchased in the open market; that, at equal rates and qualities, goods of British manufacture should be given preference over other goods of foreign origin, and that, under the same article, the managing director, who was appointed by the Board of Communications, was to call for tenders, and that no orders for materials should be executed without his authorisation. Sir J. Jordan pointed out that Mr. Bland, who had referred the matter to Mr. Liang and had requested that the bureau might be instructed by telegraph to recall its circular and to cancel the arrangements therein proposed for receiving and opening the tenders on the 17th May, had received an evasive reply from that official, who ignored the request to instruct the bureau to conform to the Loan Agreement, and made a reference to the right of the managing director to avail himself of the services of agents other than the British and Chinese Corporation, which was quite irrevelant and evidently intended to confuse the issue. His Majesty's Minister argued that while responsible officers of the Board of Communications were found to treat the just representations made to them in so unsatisfactory a manner, it was not surprising that there were so many breaches of British railway agreements to complain of.
In an interview which took place at the end of June with Hsu Shih-Chang, the newly-appointed President of the Board of Communications, Sir J. Jordan invited the serious attention of his Excellency to the various infractions of the agreement of The which His Majesty's Legation had had to complain during the past six months. handing over the construction to the provincial bureaux, the refusal of the bureaux to recognise the responsible officials appointed by the Board of Communications according to the agreement, the inferior character of the work done on the line by the bureaux, the irregular treatment of the loan funds, and the calling for tenders for German locomotives in violation of article 18, were all restated, and Sir John invited his Excellency to take immediate steps to put matters in order. Stress was laid on the direct responsibility of the Board of Communications for this grave state of affairs, inasmuch as Mr. Liang, a councillor of the Board, was the author of the scheme under which the control of the railway was handed over to the bureaux, with whom an agreement had been concluded on the very day the loan contract with the British and Chinese Corporation was signed. What the bureaux thought of Mr. Liang's scheme was clear from a letter published in the "North China Daily News," on the 11th June, in which the secretary of the Kiangsu bureau publicly announced that the Loan Agreement between the Imperial Government and the Corporation had no binding effect on either of the provincial railway bureaux.
Hsu Shih-Chang, who appeared to be fully aware of the situation, and recognised that it should be set right, promised to consult with the Grand Secretary Natung and endeavour to decide on a course of action.
On the 21st June Sir J. Jordan saw Natung for the first time since his illness, and made strong representations to his Excellency, in much the same language as that used to Hsu Shih-Chang, and dwelt especially upon the open disregard of the authority of the central Government, as evidenced by the printed letter of the secretary of the Kiangsu bureau. Sir J. Jordan was unfortunately unable to see his Excellency again before his departure from Peking to take up his appointment as Acting Viceroy of Chibli.
His Majesty's Government are quite aware that much of the delay in this case has been due to the funeral ceremonies of the late Emperor, to the want of a proper head at the Board of Communications, and to the enforced retirement of his Excellency Natung on account of illness and mourning, and of his recent appointment as Acting Viceroy. At the same time, it is unfortunately only too true that the local bureaux have shown from the first an open and cynical disregard of the Loan Agreement, and, however willing the Imperial Government may have been in theory to remedy what they themselves admit is an undesirable state of things, it is also unfortunately true that their instructions have in practice produced very little result
471
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.