This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA
CONFIDENTIAL.
[August 23.]
SECTION 4.
[F 3130/616/10]
No. 1.
Sir C. Eliot to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.-(Received August 23.)
(No. 378.)
HIS Majesty's representative at Tokyo presents his compliments to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and has the honour to transmit herewith a copy of despatch No. 54 from His Majesty's acting consul at Dairen respecting the Fushun collieries.
Tokyo, July 19, 1921.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1,
Acting Consul Cunningham to Sir C. Eliot.
Dairen, July 11, 1921.
(No. 54.) Sir,
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith four copies of a report on the Fushun collieries drawn up by myself and based on information obtained as a result of my visit to the mines at the beginning of May last.
I am sending a copy of this report direct to IIis Majesty's consul-general at Makden and to the commercial counsellor to His Majesty's Legation at Peking (at Shanghai).
W. B. CUNNINGHAM.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Location
Report on the Fushun Collieries.
are
THE Fushun collieries, operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company, situated at a distance of about 20 miles from Mukden and lie almost due east of that city. They are connected with the main line of the railway by a single-line branch from Suchiatun (8 miles from Mukden and 236 miles from Dairen). The line follows the course of the Hun-ho, the large river crossed just before Mukden is entered fron the south, and the coalfield lies close to the left bank of this river and at the foot of a low range of hills about 500 feet in height. The height above the average level of
water in Dairen Bay is 260 feet.
Area of Concession.
The Fushun concession, which is bounded on the north by the Hun River, is, roughly speaking, 10 miles in length from east to west, while the width varies from 2 to 2 miles. The total area is approximately 234 square miles.
History.
The existence of coal in the Fushun district has been known for many centuries, as there is evidence that coal was mined six hundred years ago by the Koreans, specimens of Korean pottery of that date having been found in the course of recent operations. When the Chinese obtained possession of the country, however, the mines do not appear to have been worked, and it was only about twenty years ago that the Chinese commenced mining operations on a small and simple scale. The mines were later acquired by Russia, and their development was being taken in hand at the time of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war, after which they passed into the hands of the Japanese. In April 1907 the South Manchuria Railway Company were entrusted with the work of operating and developing the mines, and since that time extraordinary progress has been made with the result that the collieries now rank among the largest And most up-to-date in the world.
Geology.
The coal seams, of which there are two principal ones, belong to the tertiary period and rest upon granite gneiss. The upper seam is at present the only one which
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