CO129-470 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 341

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undertake to buy from their own Company if the terms are as

advantageous as those elsewhere obtainable; and the Company vas

formed for the genuine purpose of helping the Chinese Government

to develop wireless telegraphy by the manufacture of apparatus

in China and by the Chinese, who, lacking the necessary

experience, are joined with the Marconi Company until, having obtained experience and having established a factory, they can

buy Karconi out.

The China Electric Company's agreement makes no mention

of wireless apparatus and only refers to telegraphy and telephony Neither that Company nor the Nippon Electric Company, its Japanese affiliated Company, make any pretence of manufacturing wireless apparatus. The China Electric

Company, on the contrary, has negotiated with the Chinese National Company for the purchase of wireless equipment. It would therefore be unfair and illogical to interpret the China Electric Company's agreement at this late date as including wireless.

Over a year ago negotiations were opened by the Chinese National Company to furnish the Chinese Goverment with high power stations but that Company decline to accede to the demands of officials for commissions. The admission has been made to a member of this Legation by a prominent local American that he had also negotiated for a contract similar to the Federal but had refused to give a commission of more

that/