CO129-371 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 37

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[This Document is the Property of H. Brianic Majestys Government.)

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[46135]

No. 1.

[December 20.]

SECTION 2.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 20.)

(No. 442.) Sir,

Peking, December 2, 1909. ON the 25th October last an Imperial decree cashiered three officials on the southern section of the Tien-tsin-Pukow Railway for malpractices in connection with the purchase of land. I requested His Majesty's consul at Nanking to supply me with such information as he might be able to obtain, and the enclosed despatch from Mr. Goffe gives you a clear account of the nature of the frauds perpetrated and the circumstances attending their discovery and the punishment of the guilty parties.

Mr. Liang Shih-yi, the Director-General of Railways, is shortly proceeding to the south to investigate this and other matters.

Low Taotai, whose attitude towards the engineers and foreign staff generally has recently been much more friendly, seems to have fallen into disfavour with the Board of Communications, and reports are current that he is likely to be relieved of his office.

The last reports from Nanking indicate that the work of construction is making fairly good progress, and that a large portion of the contracts for materials continues to be given to Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co.

I have, &c.

Inclosure in No. 1.

J. N. JORDAN.

(No. 32. Confidential.)

Consul Goffe to Sir J. Jordan.

Nanking, November 18, 1909.

Sir,

I HAVE the honour to refer you to your despatch No. 21 of the 5th instant on the subject of the cashiering of certain officials on the southern section of the Tien-tsin-Pukow Railway.

I made enquiries from several people as to this matter, but they either could not or would not give me any information; and I finally decided to approach the managing director, who is now on very friendly terms with this cousulate. I told Mr. Low that I had seen the Imperial decree cashiering these officials, and that, as I was anxious to send you a report on the subject, I should be very grateful for any information which he could see his way to giving me. He replied that he was quite ready to furnish me with the facts of the case, and proceeded to tell me as follows:-

The three officials cashiered were employed in the office charged with the purchase of the land required for the construction of the southern section of the line. This office has three purchasing parties, each of which takes a small section of the track, and as soon as its operations are concluded on one section it moves on to another. Some time ago he learnt that grave irregularities were being committed by the second purchasing party, to which these officials belonged, then operating at Pukow; and, as the result of investigation, he found that only some 70 per cent. of the nominal price was actually being paid for the land acquired for the line. This land is divided into three grades, and the system adopted by these officials was to declare the land to be of a higher grade than it really was and to pay for it at that rate, but reducing the acreage by one-tenth, which they reserved for themselves. For example, suppose the value of the three classes of land to be 10, 15, and 20 dollars respectively. If they had to purchase 10 mou of third-class land, they would do so as 9 mon of second- class land. In this way the owner got more than the proper rate for his property, the officials made their profit, and the only sufferer was the railway administration.

This land office is directly controlled from Peking, and Mr. Low has no dealings with it other than to supply such funds as are requisitioned for. At this time the

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