CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 86

Juttuurivað e'glasjett sinnand Jill to growt

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

[B]

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

0.

C.O.

$4967

REOP 26 JUL CC

81 REOP

[July 9,]

SECTION 1.

[25817]

(No. 215.) Sir,

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received July 9.)

Peking, June 17, 1909. WITH reference to your telegram No. 111 of the 15th June, I have the honour to enclose for your information copies of correspondence relating to the circular letter issued in April by the Kiangsu railway bureau, calling for tenders for locomotives of German make.

The matter was first drawn to my attention by Mr. Bland on the 29th April, who sent me a copy of a letter which he had written to the director-general of railways on the subject. The latter's reply to Mr. Bland being evasive and unsatisfactory, I brought the case up at the Wai-wu Pu, and addressed a note to Prince Ch'ing on the 13th May, commenting strongly on the breach of agreement, and requesting that telegraphic instructions might be sent by the Chinese Government to the bureau to withdraw their circular without delay. The Wai-wu Pu knew nothing of the facts from Chinese sources, but I was informed on the 21st May that telegraphic instructions had been sent to the bureau on receipt of my note to withdraw the circular, and these were followed up later by another telegram to the same effect, at my request. Further enquiries at later interviews not having elicited any definite information, I telegraphed to His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghae on the 9th June, instructing him to enquire into the facts and report fully. For this report I am now waiting.

Since writing my despatch No. 138 of the 31st March, I have let slip no oppor- tunity of pressing the irregularities on the Shanghae-Ningpo Railway on the attention of the Chinese Government. On the 20th April 1 addressed another note to Prince Ching, embodying the contents of your despatch No. 59 of the 3rd March, and requesting to be favoured with a reply to my nemorandum of the 2nd March and note of the 29th March at an early date for the information of His Majesty's Government, but neither this nor my numerous verbal and written requests since have produced any tangible result beyond the dispatch of the Chinese chief engineer of the Kalgan Railway, Mr. Jeme (Chan Tien-yu), to make a special report. There is no doubt that mnch of the delay in this case has been due to the funeral ceremonies, to the want of a proper head at the Board of Communications, to the enforced retirement of Na-t'ung on account of illness and mourning, and to the practical withdrawal of Prince Ch'ing from active participation in the Government; but underneath these proximate causes there is the general paralysis of the central administration which set in with the dismissal of Yuan Shil-k'ai, and has been steadily increasing since.

I have arranged to see the new president of the Board of Communications, Hsu Shih-ch'ang, who has lately been transferred from the Viceroyalty of Manchuria, to-inorrow, on this and other railway matters, and my first interview with Na-t'ung on his reappearance will take place by special appointment on the 21st June, and at this I intend to press his Excellency to find early solutions for this and other long-standing difficulties.

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ching.

Your Highness,

Peking, April 20, 1909. ON the 29th March I had the honour to address a note to your Highness on the affairs of the Shanghae-Ningpo Railway, in which I requested that the contents of my memorandum of the 2nd March should be brought to the notice of the Grand Council,

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