FO371-31667 — Page 104

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NOTHING

ΤΟ

BE

WRITTEN

IN

THIS

MARGIN.

:

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4163

Minutes.

Enter

THE CHINESE ENGINEERING

Galer 1888/10

F

AND MINING COMPANY

Li6th

He com a comfmond hear. Bus shit he meant In would like us to

d.

·

hans

ски в Сіціоне letter!

four.

Mr. Patrick Young, one of the Directors (I think that is his name, but find he left no record of it) came to see me this afternoon on the introduction of Sir Edward Crowe, who vouched for him as a man of great ability. Sir E. Crowe is, by arrangement between the Chinese and British companies, the arbitrator in the event of disputes between them.

It was a little difficult for me to ascertain exactly what Mr. Young wanted and I think that probably some apprehension of the nature suggested in Mr. Broad's minute was at the bottom of his visit. Indeed, it was only towards the end of our talk that he revealed that the Board are addressing us a letter, which should reach us tomorrow, and which Mr. Young himself professes to regard as dictated too much by considerations of the shareholders' interests.

So strongly does he feel this that, in giving me the attached note marked "A" which he intended as a suggested basis for a letter from the Foreign Office to the Company, he added that he had "tendered" his resignation to the Board of Directors before coming to see me, though he did not say that it had been accepted. He thought it better to have his hands free and he pointed out that the Chairman of the Company is a man of 87 who has great difficulty in visualizing the present state of affairs.

It required something in the nature of leading questions to define Mr. Young's own attitude and the information thus derived is briefly as follows:

(a) He thinks it is essential that His Majesty's Government should act in concert with the Chinese, forty in laying down the. policy for the companies to follow so that identical instructions may go to the Chinese Company from Chungking and to the British from London. The Chinese would easily be able to arrange the despatch of these instruc- tions,

(b) Mr. Young insists on the patriotic character of the principal British employees on the spot. Mr. Nathan fought in the last war, while the man in charge of shipments from the port is an ex-naval officer with a splendid war record,

(c)/

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