CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 337

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district and departmental magistrates be instructed to earnestly exhort the people with regard to the matter. The Viceroy minuted that he had carefully perused the petition and the plan of campaign proposed; that he would first instruct the Taotai of Industries to require the local prefectural and district authorities to explain by proclamation to their respective jurisdictions the reasons for the call for railway funds; and that he wanted a list of the officers deputed to solicit subscriptions, their names, official rank, and district to which deputed, for his information.

Enclosure 3 in No. 1.

Press Extract enclosed in Consul-General Fraser's No. 57 of May 14, 1910.

HUPEI RAILWAYS: PROCLAMATION OF KU CH'ENG MAGISTRATE,

THE Kung Lun Hsin Pao" of the 25th April gives the text of the Ku Ch'eng (Hupei) district magistrate's proclamation soliciting subscriptions to the railway funds.

The redemption of the Hankow-Canton and Hankow-Szechuan Railways from the American Development Company an accomplished fact (sic), their construction passed into the hands of Hupei, whose people have for the past few months responded unanimously to the burden imposed on them of raising capital, and last year at Hankow the Railway Association was formed as a basis for the enterprise. But the lines are so long and the funds required so heavy that the only solution of a successful issue lies in a generous contribution to the railway shares. Last year Ku Ch'eng students at Wuchang put up between them 60,000 dollars, and, as the shares are collected in five annual calls of 1 dollar each, there is no gainsaying the easiness of the terms; morcover, although there are both rich and poor alike in the district, one and all are inspired by the same zeal for the public weal. For subscription purposes the district has been divided into four divisions, with gentry in charge of each; in the district city the magistrate has set up a branch association for inviting shares, and also exhorted the notables of each locality to promote subscriptions. The object of this proclamation is to do away with any ignorance of the importance of railways and the profits to be derived therefrom, and it is circulated in the hope of bringing home to you that Hupei is the hub of the whole Empire, the pivot on which, as it were, turn all the spokes of the wheel. If we borrow from the alien not only will our sovereign rights drain abroad to the immediate detriment of the people of Hupei, but, the line once finished, the control will be in other hands and the nation exposed to all sorts of demands whenever a pretext occurs; but, if we build the line ourselves, we come in for the profits and we preserve our rights, and the advantages are innumerable. Men of Hupei, whose innate good nature is a byeword, you should never forget your birthplace, and you should show your patriotism by eagerly taking up shares, and thus see the thing through. The gentry and notables have, in consultation with the magistrate, fixed each division's quota of responsibility, and first calls will be due from the beginning of the third moon. From now onwards it will be the duty of the gentry, leisured classes, rich merchants, and mechanics alike to subscribe to the limit of their resources, paying in their calls to the representatives at the appointed time, who will hand over to the branch office for transmission to the association. The gentry will tear off the form, which will be given to the shareholder as a receipt, and when the share subscription has been collected in full the holder will be given his share and interest certificates in exchange. During progress of construction interest will be at 6 per cent., and a dividend to be paid on completion of the line. This compares favourably with land investments or mortgages.

Others, too, the wealthy and loyal merchants of other parts, should also respond with all their might. The more the merrier is our motto. Thus we shall get enough capital and everyone will make fat profits. Such is my earnest desire.

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government. 334

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL

[22293]

(No. 89.)

(Telegraphic.) R.

No. 1.

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Max Müller,

CO

20853 [June 20.]

SECTION 8 JUL 10)

Foreign Office, June 20, 1910.

MY telegram No. 77 of 26th May. Paris agreement has received assent of three Powers concerned. You should now approach your French, German, and American colleagues with a view to jointly requesting the Chinese Government formally to complete the loan agreement of 6th June, 1909, as well as the subsequent supplemental agreements made for the purpose of including the American group in the arrangement.

You should refer to the promise given by Prince Ching to the British and American representatives in October 1903 as to capital for building a line from Hankow to Szechuan should Chinese capital be found insufficient, and point out that in accepting the present loan agreement this undertaking must henceforth be held to extend to France and Germany as well.

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