Government, said contentions and disagreements shall be settled as specified in article 26 of the loan contract.

ARTICLE 8.

If the revenues from operating the lines are not sufficient to cover the expenses, the Chinese Railway Company must supply the Société d'Etude with the necessary means to insure the operating of the lines under normal conditions.

ARTICLE 9.

All materials and supplies needed by the Société d'Etude for the working of the line, as well as for the maintenance and repair of the line, shall, when imported from abroad, be exempt from all customs or likin dues.

ARTICLE 10.

The present contract is made in triplicate; one copy for the Imperial Chinese Government, one for the Chinese Railway Company, and the third for the Société d'Etude de Chemins de fer en Chine.

In case of doubt or disagreement the French text shall alone be accepted for the interpretation of the contract.

The present contract must be submitted through the proper channel for Imperial sanction, and, when said sanction shall have been obtained, the Tsung-li-Yamên must advise, by official dispatch, the Belgian Representative at Peking and eventually the representative at Peking of the foreign Government to which the title may be officially notified (auquel le titre sera notifié).

Done in Shanghai, the twenty-sixth of the month of June eighteen hundred ninety-eight.

The Engineer representing the Société d'Etude de Chemins de fer en

(s.) HUBERT.

Chine,

The Director-General of the Chinese Railway Company,

(Official seal of the Chinese Railway Administration.)

The Representatives of the Imperial Chinese Government:
The Viceroy of Hupeh,

The Viceroy of Chihli,

LETTER OF HIS EXCELLENCY SHENG RELATIVE TO THE ARBITRATION CLAUSE.

IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION OF CHINESE RAILWAYS,

Shanghai, June 26, 1898.

As the contentions and disagreements referred to in Article 26 of the loan contract and in Article 7 of the operating contract relating to the Railway from Hankow to Peking, may relate to interest and the amortization of the loan, the undersigned Sheng Hsüan-huai, Director General of the Chinese Railway Company, duly authorized thereto by the Tsung-li Yamên, declares, from the present date, that the arbitrator to judge finally all such contentions and disagreements, will be the Minister at Peking of the foreign country which shall have taken part in the subscription for the loan.

[Official Seal of the Chinese

Railway Administration.]

[s]

SHENG HSÜAN-HUAI, Director General of Railways.

LETTER OF HIS EXCELLENCY SHENG RELATIVE TO THE PREFEREN-
TIAL RIGHT TO THE HANKOW-CANTON LINE.

IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION OF CHINESE RAILWAYS,
Shanghai, June 26, 1898.

The undersigned, Sheng-Hsüan-huai, Director General of the Chinese Railway Company, declares that he reserves to the Société d'Études des Chemins de fer en Chine, a preferential right as regards the railway to be built from Hankow to Canton, in case the provisional contract, as drawn up in Washington between His Excellency Sheng and the American Syndicate (Carey-Washburn), should not become a definitive one.

It is well understood that this preferential right is granted to the Société d'Etudes des Chemins de fer en Chine, under the terms of Article 14 of the Wuchang contract, which formally prohibits the Société Belge d'Études des Chemins de fer en Chine from transferring any of its rights to any company of foreign nationality.

[Official seal of the Chinese Railway Administration.]

[s] SHENG-HSÜAN HUAI, Director General of Railways.

PREFERENTIAL RIGHT OF THE BELGIAN SYNDICATE TO BUILD

HANKOW-CANTON RAILWAY.

In connection with the letter of Sheng Hsüan-huai given above and relating to the preferential right of the Belgian Syndicate to build the Hankow-Canton railway in case the contract made with the American China Development Company should not become definitive, the following dispatch from the British chargé d'affaires in Peking to Lord Salisbury, and published in the British Parliamentary Blue Book, China, No. 1 (1900) pp. 155–156, is of interest.

MR. BAX-IRONSIDE TO THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY.

[Extract.]

PEKING, May 15, 1899.

I had the honour to receive a telegram from your Lordship on the 28th ultimo, informing me that the prospectus issued by the Belgian Syndicate for the Peking-Hankow Railway Loan states that the Syndicate have a preferential right to the Hankow-Canton line in the event of the Contract with the American Syndicate not being finally arranged.

Your Lordship also inquired whether the Chinese Government had ever communicated the text of the Peking-Hankow Agreement in accordance with an undertaking which they had previously given us.

At an interview which had already been arranged for the following day with the Tsung-li Yamên, I took the opportunity to inquire whether the statement issued in the Belgian prospectus was a correct

one.

The Ministers had no knowledge of any such arrangement.

I pointed out that, according to published reports, the American Syndicate had a preferential right to the Peking-Hankow line if negotiations with the Belgian Syndicate fell through.

The Ministers expressed themselves equally ignorant of this arrangement.

On the following day I sent two members of the staff to carefully compare our copy of the Chinese text with the original one in the possession of the Tsung-li Yamên, with the result that the comparison showed no material difference.

The Secretaries of the Yamên stated that they had no copy of the French text which is the standard in case of dispute.

On the 6th instant I addressed an official note to the Tsung-li Yamên requesting to be informed whether such an arrangement as stated in the prospectus had been made, and their Excellencies replied in the negative.

Copy of my note, together with the reply thereto, are herewith inclosed.

[Inclosure 1.]

MR. BAX-IRONSIDE TO THE TSUNG-LI-YAMÊN.

MM. LES MINISTRES,

PEKING, May 6, 1899.

On the 29th April I called at the Yamên and referred to the Agreement made on the 26th June last year with the Belgian Syndicate for the Peking-Hankow Railway. I mentioned that in the prospectus issued by the Belgian Syndicate it was stated that China had promised that if the American Agreement for the Hankow-Canton line fell through, the Belgian Syndicate would be intrusted with the construction of that line.

Your Excellencies informed me that there was no such stipulation in the Agreement of twenty-nine Articles, or the Supplementary Agreement of ten Articles made with the Belgian Syndicate for the PekingHankow line.

I have heard, however, that the promise referred to was given subsequently to the settlement of the aforesaid Agreements, and I have the honour to request your Highness and your Excellencies to inform me whether such an Agreement has been made.

(Signed)

[Inclosure 2.]

H. O. BAX-IRONSIDE.

SIR,

THE TSUNG-LI YAMEN TO MR. BAX-IRONSIDE.

[Translation.]

PEKING, May 10, 1899. On the 6th instant we received your letter to the effect that in the prospectus issued by the Belgian Syndicate it is stated that China has promised that in the event of the abandonment of the American Contract for the Hankow-Canton Railway the Belgian Syndicate will be intrusted with the construction of that line. You added that you had heard that this promise was given subsequently to the settlement of the Belgian Agreement, and you inquired whether such an arrangement had been made.

We have the honour to inform you that neither the Belgian Agreement in twenty-nine clauses nor the Supplementary Agreement in ten clauses contains any such stipulation, and that there has been no subsequent arrangement of any kind.

We have, &c.

(Cards of their Excellencies the Ministers inclosed.)

No. 35.

CHINA.

IMPERIAL EDICT ESTABLISHING BUREAU OF CONTROL OF RAILWAYS AND MINES.

APRIL 2, 1898.

[Translation.]

Railways and mines are nowadays the most important enterprises in this Empire. We have already had the Tientsin-Shanhaikuan and the Tientsin-Peking railways built and in regular working order for some time past, while steps are now being taken for raising funds to build the Shanhaikuan extension to the Taling River (Niuchwang and vicinity). As for the Canton-Hankow and Hankow-Peking lines, full control had been granted the Head Commercial Company to find ways and means for the construction of these railways, and matters appear to be now taking definite shape in this connection.

Then as to mines, we have the Kaiping Colliery and the Muhô (Amur) gold mines as the most successful, so far, among the many mining enterprises embarked upon, and we have already further commanded those in control to seize every opportunity to extend the works of the two mines above noted.

We are, however, apprehensive, in view of the number of provinces in the Empire and the various conditions of men who will attempt to open mines of all sorts in the future, that a diversity of methods and ensuing confusion will be the result, which would, of course, be detrimental to the principal object we have, of getting the fullest advantages obtainable out of each and every undertaking in this direction. It is therefore highly important that there should be a central bureau to direct, under a single system, the working and exploitation of mines and railways in the Empire, and we hereby command that a Bureau of Control for Railways and Mines be established in Peking, to the chief commissionerships of which We now specially appoint two ministers of the Tsungli Yamên, namely, Wang Wên-shao and Chang Yin-huan.

The said Chief Commissioners shall from henceforth have special control over the opening of mines and construction of railways throughout the Empire, and companies formed for the above purposes will in future be required to apply to the said Commissioners for permission and guidance in their operations.