CO129-385 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 275

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

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

273

C O [August 8.159

SECTION 2.

10.

A 6 FC I

[31173]

No. 1.

(No. 293.) Sir,

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received August 8.)

Peking, July 20, 1911. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copy of the terms of an agreement concluded between the director-general of the Szechuan-Canton-Hankow Railway and Mr. A. H. Collinson, pursuant to the latter's selection by the Chinese Government, in accordance with the terms of the Hukuang Railway loan, as engineer-in-chief of the Hupei-Hunan section of the Canton-Hankow line.

I regard the present agreement as a gratifying vindication of the capacity of British engineers, whose work in connection with the Shanghai-Nanking Railway was the object of much adverse criticism as being needlessly extravagant.

Mr. Colliuson in particular has been selected as a target for invective as being responsible for the construction of the Shanghai-Nanking line.

In the present instance the personal equation no doubt counted for much, as Mr. Collinson has been persona grdia to Tuan Fang, the director-general with whom he has signed his new contract and for whom he built the Nanking City Railway.

It is noticeable that the agreement is limited to three years, within which períod the Chinese are resolved that the line to Canton shall be completed.

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

Agreement.

THIS agreement is made on the 1st day of July, 1911, between the director- general of the Szechuan-Canton-Hankow Railway (hereinafter called the director- general) and Alfred Howe Collinson, member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (hereinafter called the engineer-in-chief).

Whereas by an agreement made in Peking on the 22nd day of the 4th month of the 3rd year of the Emperor Hsuan Tung, corresponding to the 20th day of May, 1911, between the Ministry of Posts and Communications of the one part, and the Deutsch- Asiatische Bank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Banque de l'Indo-Chine, and the American group, of the other part, for the issue of a loan for the construction of inter alia a Government railway main line from Wuchang, the capital of the Hupei province, through Yochow and Changsha, the capital of the Hunan province, to a point in the district of Yichang Hsien, in the prefecture of Ch'en Chou, on the southern boundary of Hunan (hereinafter known as the Hupei- Hunan section of the Canton-Hankow Railway line), it was provided inter alia that the construction and control of the aforesaid railway shall be entirely and exclusively vested in the Imperial Chinese Government, and that for the work of construction the Imperial Chinese Government will select for appointment a fully qualified British engineer-in-chief for the aforesaid section.

It is hereby agreed as follows:

Article 1.-The director-general hereby selects and appoints Mr. A. H. Collinson as engineer-in-chief of the aforesaid section upon the terms hereinafter mentioned, and the engineer-in-chief hereby accepts the said engagement.

Art. 2. The term of the engineer-in-chief's engagement shall commence on the day of execution of this agreement, and shall end three years from the day of actual beginning of the work of construction.

Art. 3. The engineer-in-chief shall be under the orders of the director-general and the managing director of the line, or, in their absence, of their duly authorised representatives, and will carry out all the wishes of the Ministry with regard to the

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