CO129-371 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 83

This Demment is the Promenlar

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[39502]

No. 1.

C O

82

2765

RECE [October 26-JAN 10)

SECTION 3.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey,-(Received October 26.)

(No. 169.) (Telegraphic.) P.

RAILWAY loan negotiations.

Peking, October 26, 1909.

The memorandum alluded to in your telegram No. 170 of the 20th instant is summarised in a telegram addressed to the United States chargé d'affaires by his Government, which also gives the substance of the conversation that the American Ambassador had with you and Sir Francis Campbell.

I explained to Mr. Fletcher, who read to me the American Secretary of State's telegram, the reasons why we could not admit the German proposal to include the Canton-Hankow Railway in any redistribution scheme, and I also laid before him the suggested rearrangement of the engineering sections on the Hankow-Szechuan line. Mr. Fletcher, who appeared fully to appreciate our attitude, told me that he would endeavour to make the Chinese understand that the delay in the negotiations should be ascribed to the attitude of the Germans, and not to ours, as has been represented.

From two conversations which I have had in a friendly manner with the German Minister, I gather that Count Rex would probably admit the action of the German group to have savoured somewhat of sharp practice during the first stage of the loan negotiations. Generally speaking, it seems to me that the death of Chang Chib-tung has had an adverse effect on the German position.

[39503)

No. 2.

(No. 170.)

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 26.)

(Telegraphic.) P.

CHINCHOW-AIGUN Railway.

Please see my telegram No. 163 of the 5th instant.

Peking, October 26, 1909.

I told the American chargé d'affaires to-day, on his raising the subject of the above railway, that it ought not to be difficult to arrange for Japanese participation on While concurring in my terms satisfactory to the British and American groups.

opinion, Mr. Fletcher expressed the view that the difficulty lay in China's probable refusal to admit such participation. As far as America was concerned, he added, China must not expect the United States to bear the whole brunt of the struggle between Chinese and Japanese in Manchuria, and it is for China to decide whether she will allow the Japanese to participate, or whether, in the event of Japanese opposition, she is sufficiently anxious for the railway as to proceed to its construction on her own

account.

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