474
Britsh Traffic Manager of the Imperial Northern Railway as one of those consulted. Sir John rejoined that Mr. Foley, while doubtless a very excellenct traffic Manager, was quite unfit- ted to pass judgment on the question. If the Chinese Gov- ernment wished to obtain reliable advice they should apply to experienced engineers such as Messrs Collinson and Cox.
Sir John then proceeded at some length to lay stress on the ingratitude of the Chinese Government in view of their attitude towards the British Goverment over this question. He claimed that the policy of His Majesty's Bovernment had been one of extraordinary fairness and generosity toward s China in connexion with railways generally. He said that we had always tried to help China to gain control over her own railways and he contrasted our action with that of the Germans French, Japanese, etc., who ran railways of no inconsiderable
de length in China quite outsied of any Chinese Government con- trol. He went on to say that since his arrival in Peking he had assisted China to control her railways and in the case of the Canton-Kowloon Line instead of building the whole line our- selves and entirely controlling it we had been willing to nego- tiate a business deal for joint working. In return for our self-denial we were met with this haggling over the question of division of profits. Not only over this line had our atti- tude been most friendly but also in regard to the Tientsin- Pukow and the Hukwang Railways Agreements. In summing up his remarks Sir John announced his intention again of taking the
whole question up from the start with the Wai Wu Pu in which
case we should ask for much more than we were content with at
present, viz. joint management.
C. K. Yuan hereupon remarked that "joint management" had been definitely dropped but Sir John denied this and pointed out that it had only been temporarily waived on Liang Shih-yi having shewn his willingness K to discuss an arrange- ment with Sir F. Lugard whereby the greater proportion of
capital
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.