[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
342
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[45233]
[AMENDED COPY.]
No. 1.
5712
[November 30
24 FEB SECTION 2.
Memorandum communicated by Mr. Kato, November 30, 1910.
SUMMARY of the agreement signed in London on the 10th November, 1910, among representatives of the British, French, German, and American groups :--
Consideration.--Each of the groups to bring into the common pool certain railway concessions (or any other adequate concessions (?)) in China appertaining to each of them.
Scope.--Loan and advances concluded or to be concluded with the Chinese Government or any of the provinces forming part of the Chinese Empire.
Conditions.--Independence of negotiations for each of the groups, but joint signature of agreement and equal division of results obligatory.
Period. Agreement in force till the 31st December, 1912; thereafter, terminable at six months' notice.
The considerations tendered by the groups :-----
The British Group.-The Hankow-Kwangtung Railway, the Hankow-Szechuan Railway, the Pukow-Sinyang Railway concessions.
The French Group.-The Hankow-Szechuan Railway concession. The German Group.---The Hankow-Hunan Railway concession.
The American Group.-The Hankow-Szechnau Railway concession, the currency loan, and the Chinchow-Aigun Railway loan.
On the 23rd November the French Ambassador in Tokyo called on Count Komura, and made in substance the following communication as under instructions:-- According to the American Ambassador in Paris, the object of the new Chinese loan was currency reform, whilst the French Minister to China reported that the question as to how the proceeds of the loan were to be used was not yet decided, and M. Pichon was uncertain which information was true. The French Government consented in principle to the participation of the French group in the Chinese loan, but should they find that the money was to be employed in any way not consistent with the stipulations of the Treaty of Portsmouth regarding Manchuria and Mongolia, or the special interests therein established by the two subsequent conventions between Japan and Russia, they would cause the French financiers to take immediate steps to decline their participation in the loan. In short, the Government of the republic desired to announce that their attitude on the Chinese loan in question was exactly the same
as that which they assumed in regard to the Manchurian railways neutralisation question of the last year.
[2982 gg-2]
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.