CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 236

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issued for the remaining 40 per cent. When the railway is completed and has began to pay the bondholders will be allowed to recoup the remaining part of their capital from the surplus profits in ten annual instaliments. The Hunan Railway shares subscribed by merchants are to be paid in their full value. As regards the other shares that have been raised by rice subscription, rent subscription, &c., Government- Hupei guaranteed interest-bearing bonds will be issued in exchange for them. Railway shares are also to be paid in their full value. The railway funds which have been expended in connection with famine relief are to be treated in the same way as the Hunan rice subscription. The sum of 4 million and several hundred thousand taels spent on actual materials for the construction of the Ichang section of the Szechuan Railway will be made good by the grant of Government-guaranteed interest- bearing bonds.

It is optional on the part of the shareholders whether the balance of over 7 million taels is to be employed for railway shares or for the promotion of the industries in their respective provinces. As these suggestions are satisfactory, we hereby command the director-general of the Canton-Hankow and Szechuan-Hankow Railways to proceed at once to his post and act in concert with the viceroys and governors of the said provinces in carrying out the scheme as suggested and in making a careful and detailed investigation of accounts. In this matter the throne has exercised its discretion so as to combine justice with benevolence. After this determination, if any person be found to make railway matters a pretext for inciting the people to create a disturbance, the said viceroys and governors should mete out the severest punishinent to him without any leniency being shown, that peace and order

be maintained.

inay

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

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[25908]

No. 1.

Sir Edward Grey to Sir G. Buchanan.

C

233

[July 11]

24603

SECTION 27 JUL II

(No. 180.) Sir,

WITH reference to your Excellency's despatch No. 131, Secret, of the 14th May

Foreign Office, July 11, 1911, last, I transmit to you herewith a copy of memoranda which have been communicated to this department by Lord ffrench, setting forth some political and commercial aspects of the projected railway from Harbin via Taonanfu to Peking, and asking for the assistance and support of His Majesty's Government with a view to obtaining the consent of the Japanese Government to the project. Annexed to the memoranda are copies of the correspondence which has passed between Lord ffrench and members of the Russian Government on the subject †

Your Excellency will observe from a perusal of Lord ffrench's letter to the Russian Minister of Finance of the 1st June, which forms the last annex to the memoranda, that the views of the Russian Government had not at the time been definitely ascertained, and Messrs. Pauling were accordingly informed on 14th ultimo that a further communication would be awaited from them on this point the before His Majesty's Government could consider what action might be open to them in the matter.

This communication has since been received, and consists of a letter from M. Kokovtsoff, of the Ministry of Finance, to Lord ffrench, dated the 10th June, in reply to his letter under discussion.

"A copy of this letter is enclosed, together with a subsequent communication from Messrs. Pauling on the subject. M. Kokovtsoff, after stating that Russia is in favour of a line from Harbin to Taonanfu, and that she does not intend to raise any further obstacles to a continuation to Peking, though it does not offer any advantages to her Manchurian lines, provided, however, that it is built at a suitable distance from the Chinese Eastern Railway, goes on to say that the Power primarily affected is, after all, not herself, but Japan, and that it is therefore incumbent on the promoters of the scheme to ascertain, in the first instance, the views of the Japanese Government. There would not appear to be any reason why the Russian Government should object to our approaching the Japanese Government in regard to a railway to which Russia has agreed, and I therefore propose to take the necessary steps for this purpose. Before doing so, however, in view of the undertaking given by His Majesty's Government in 1899 as regards railway construction north of the Great Wall, I should be glad if your Excellency would obtain from the Russian Government confirmation of the views expressed to Lord ffrench in regard to the construction of the Peking-Taonanfu-Harbin line, and inform them of what His Majesty's Government propose to do.

I

am, &c.

E. GREY.

* Memoranda.

† Lord ffrench, June 14, 1911.

Messrs. Pauling, July 3, 1911.

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