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people or to prohibit their meetings by force. I have done my best to admonish the people, and have agreed to memorialise on their behalf, praying for the Imperial clemency, and have warned them against rioting. At the present moment the people have temporarily dispersed, but it will be difficult to appease them finally. The people of this district are of an excitable nature, and in last year's riots bad characters recklessly stirred up trouble in a moment. Again, there has just been trouble at Canton, where the strictest precautions had been taken, and I very much fear lest advantage should be taken of this to meditate trouble here. If crowds collect and utter threats they will drag with them the lower classes, and pretexts will be seized to create a disturbance, which will certainly cause a great calamity.
I, Wen Ting, am charged with the duty of preserving the province, and I am really unable to face such a responsibility. When the various representatives have presented their petition I shall proceed to state the real facts to the Throne in a clear memorial.
I propose now to ask your board to telegraph as a first step instructions to the railway companies couched somewhat on the following lines:-
"Substantial sums have been collected by your companies, thus showing how enthusiastic the merchants are over the matter. It is necessary, then, that everything should go on as before, and no special officials or engineers will be appointed. As regards the future, it is necessary to wait for the director-general to advance or stop the work as he sees fit in order to secure uniformity of gauge."
In this way we shall pacify people's minds, for no matter whether these railways are managed by the officials or the merchants they are all State-owned.
At the present time the people are in a very angry state, and the only thing to do is to try to arrange a compromise and to accomplish oue's aim gradually. If any Matters are very critical, hasty action is taken a serious calamity will at once ensue. and I therefore send you this secret word in advance for you to prepare some arrange- ment. I earnestly beg you to send me an immediate reply. For the rest I am reporting in detail by letter.
and we intend to await your despatch respecting the examination of the accounts. As regards the actual receipts and expenditure of the companies, it may be that our boards will devise a means of payment and leave the merchants to manage on their own account the branch lines or any reliable mining enterprise. Or there may be a time when there may be no branch lines or mining enterprises to operate, and the merchants would wish to take Government bonds and share certificates at a guaranteed annual rate of interest, the capital being repaid by instalments. This can be left for them to accept or not as they please.
We further beg your Excellencies to examine into the conditions and respectively reply by telegraph, so that we may rely on your counsel.
As regards the work at present proceeding, please order the managers, assistant managers, and engineers to carry on the work. When the director-general, who will be appointed by Imperial decree, arrives at the scene of operations, he will proceed on the old lines, and, in co-operation with the Viceroys and governor, will hurry on the work. It is possible that the question may be considered of changing the title of managers and assistant managers to that of "pang-pang," ie., assistant, in order to rely on having experienced men.
We beg that you will issue instructions in this sense.
(Translation.)
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
Imperial Decree of May 18, 1911.
TUAN FANG is hereby appointed an expectant vice-president of a board and should take up the appointment of director-general of the Canton-Hankow and Chuan-Han, ie., Szechuan-Hankow Railways. He should proceed at once, and, in co-operation with the Hu-Kuang, Liang Kuang, and Szechuan Viceroys and the Governor of Hunan should comply strictly with the previous edict by making satisfactory arrangements to carry out the undertaking.
(Translation.)
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Extract from the "Official Gazette " of May 18, 1911.
Telegram sent by the Board of Finance and the Board of Communications to the Hukuang,
Liang Kuang, and Szechuan Viceroys and to the Governor of Hunan.
THE Imperial decree has recently been received ordering that all trunk lines should belong to the State as a settled principle of administrative policy, and that all trunk lines operated by merchants before the third year of Hsuan Tung were to be given up (literally cancelled). Further, the Board of Finance and the Board of Communications were at once to prepare a detailed scheme for recovering these lines and should request a decree for carrying out the same.
The above decree has been copied in fall, and both telegraphed and sent by despatch to you all, while the various railway companies have been notified accord- ingly. We beg to observe that it will take some time to discuss jointly in obedience to the decree a detailed scheme for the recovery of the trunk lines, the Szechuan- Hankow and the Canton-Hankow, and we must therefore request your Excellencies to notify the railway companies that it is not necessary to stop work. In this way we shall avoid the dispersal of the coolies. Further, the officials originally employed shall remain on as before. We also request that you will immediately select a high official to make an investigation from the railway companies as to how much of the lines worked by the merchants has been completed and how much rests uncompleted. Also, he should ascertain the amount of capital already used and the amount of materials and cash in hand. Please let us have a reply at once by telegraph, and at the same time forward statistics by despatch on which we may base a request for a decree dealing with the matter.
Again, the recovery of the trunk lines for the State is with the object of planning for the welfare of the people and at the same time preparing a definite and uniform plan of operations. For the future we can jointly discuss the details of the scheme,
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