[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
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&
REN 16 JUN 11
[May 1.]
SECTION 2.
(No. 155.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received May 1.)
Peking, April 12, 1911. I HAVE the honour to forward the following information, which has been courteously supplied to me by the Japanese chargé d'affaires, in regard to the loan of 10,000,000 yen for which the contract, as reported to you by Sir C. MacDonald, was signed between the Yokohama Specie Bank and the Board of Communications in Peking on the 24th March.
The price paid is 95, and the loan bears interest at 5 per cent,, and is redeemable in twenty-five years. The security is the tribute rice money of the province of Kiangsu, yielding an average annual revenue of about $1,000,000 taels. There is no supervision of expenditure, but it is understood that the proceeds are to enable the Board of Posts and Communications to repay funds which they have borrowed from naval sources for the purposes of the Peking-Hankow Railway,
The Japanese Legation had no hand in the negotiations, which were conducted entirely between Mr. Odagiri, the representative in China of the Yokohama Specie Bank, and Sheng Kung-pao, the president of the Board of Communications.
As far as I can ascertain, the Board of Finance was not associated with the Board of Communications in the memorial presented to the Throne, but the president, Duke Tsai Tse, whose department controls the tribute rice money, gave categorical assurances that the Kiangsu provincial revenue from that source should be employed for the service of the loan.
time.
It is expected that the loan will be floated in Tokyo and Osaka in about a week's The Wai-wu Pu communicated to the Japanese Legation the Imperial edict authorising the loan as soon as the contract had been signed.
I am forwarding a copy of this despatch to His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
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