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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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Rrg I JUL 10
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[February 5.]
SECTION 3.
[4324]
No. 1.
Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received February 5.)
(No. 21.) (Telegraphic.) R.
YOUR telegram No. 21.
Peking, February 5, 1910.
Your version of the edict gives a slightly exaggerated idea of its purport, and I had told Mr. Hillier that I should have preferred to ascertain the probable action of the Board of Communications before reporting the matter to you, as, though fully alive to the danger of passing by the edict in silence, I should not like needlessly to give the Chinese Government an opportunity of enquiring whether we were prepared to proceed to the signature of the agreement of the 6th June. However, the French and German Ministers, who have already mentioned the question to the Wai-wu Pu, are in favour of sending in an identic note calling attention to the terms of the edict as being contrary to the initialled agreement, as they consider this may strengthen the hands of the central Government in dealing with provincial opposition. Am I authorised to join? United States chargé d'affaires will abstain on the ground that the American group was not a party to the agreement.
Action of the banks here is probably influenced by the desire to impress on the groups the extreme danger of delay, and in this desire my recent visits to Hunan and Hupeh lead me fully to share.
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