"On the evening of the 10th the Yamên answered that they would appoint a day for an interview when they had received the Contract, which, they said, had not yet reached Peking for ratification. On the 11th I replied that I understood from this communication that they undertook not to ratify until they had seen me. To this they returned an evasive answer to the effect that they were all engaged by ceremonies at the Palace connected with the Emperor's birthday, which would last some days. I should add that I had already, on the 10th, sent them a note in which I criticized the Contract in detail, stating finally that I should have further objections to bring forward at my interview with them. I now hear on good authority that the Contract was ratified yesterday, the 12th. That the ratification has thus been rushed through is undoubtedly due to the influence of Li Hung-chang, combined with strong pressure on the part of the Representatives of Russia, France, and Belgium, and if heavy payment is not exacted from the Chinese Government for their bad faith, Li will persuade his colleagues that it is safer to slight England than any other Power, and any pressure which we may want to bring to bear in other matters will be without weight. I therefore think that Her Majesty's Government should insist either:— "1. On a written assurance from the Yamên that if British Syndicates apply for any railway concessions in the Yang-tsze provinces, they shall be given on the same terms as those which France, under cover of the Belgian Syndicate, has received in the Peking-Hankow Contract, and that no mining or railway concessions will be granted in those provinces unless they have been previously declined by British Syndicates; or {84} "2. On a written assurance that all railways for which British Syndicates are now in Treaty, that is to say— (a.) The Shan-hai-Kuan-Niuchwang line; (b.) The line from Tien-tsin to Chinkiang (the latter, as I understand, in conjunction with Germans and Americans); (c.) The line from Shanghae to Nanking with its continuations and branches; (d.) The lines in Honan and Shansi should be granted without any further delay on terms identical with those contained in the Contract for the Peking-Hankow line. The latter consist, so far as I can learn, in complete control over the construction, choice of material, working, and personnel of the line, together with an Imperial guarantee for the repayment of the loan. The second demand seems to me to be preferable on the whole; it will be impossible to obtain either demand without bringing great pressure to bear, and I consider that the demand should be made not as a compensatory concession, but as a punishment for bad faith."