Petition Opposing Zhang Jingyao’s Secret
Agreement to Sell the Mines (December 27,1919)
Petition submitted to the Presidential Office, the Cabinet, and the three Ministries
of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Agriculture and Commerce. We request that severe
punishment be meted out to the officials who have signed a secret agreement to sell the
mines, as a warning to corrupt officials and to protect the mining industry of Hunan.
Most respectfully submitted.
We venture to inform you that Zhang Rongmei, director of the Hunan Mining
Bureau, is a man of base character and greedy disposition. Taking advantage of his
personal ties with the military governor of Hunan, Zhang Jingyao, he came to Hunan
and was made the chief of the Administrative Department, an office for which he was
not qualified, where he gained a bad reputation for helping the wicked and taking
bribes. Then, coveting the huge profits of the Hunan mines, he schemed with ulterior
motives to worm his way into the post of director of the Mining Bureau. In Governor Zhang’s earlier secret talks with Grant,198 an English businessman, about buying
the province’s mining rights, he in fact acted as the chief plotter, hoping to receive
big bribes. Fortunately, the affair was discovered by the Ministry of Agriculture and
Commerce and was opposed by all the people of Hunan, and the deal was terminated.
Unbelievably, Zhang Rongmei did not give up his ambitions and continued to contrive
neer of the Bureau at Shuikoushan, who introduced him to the American businessman
Meyer Blukin,200 and others, in order that they might use the name of a joint-capital
venture in the
management of the Hunan Zinc Smeltery201 as collateral for a loan. It is reported
that, according to the loan contract, the Hunan government’s stock shares are the lead
ore, valued at U.S.$800,000, while the investment of the American businessmen is to
be U.S.$1,400,000. Zhang Rongmei and the American businessmen secretly signed the
draft agreement in Beijing at 1 P.M. on December twelfth of this year. The term is
five years, at the end of which it may be extended for another ten years; during this
term, the lead ore of Hunan Province is all to be sold to the Smeltery at U.S.$10 per
ton. On the day of the signing of the draft agreement, U.S.$60,000 were paid in. It has
been agreed that on the conclusion of the formal agreement, another U.S.$ 140,000 will
be handed over. A limit of three weeks from the signing of the draft agreement is set
for the formal agreement to be approved and sealed, after which time the contractual
agreement will be null and void. It is known that the lead mine at Shuikoushan is the
sole source of revenue for Hunan, and the zinc smeltery the sole lifeline of the province’s
mining industry. If it should ever fall into foreign hands, not only would the people of
Hunan lose forever their last hope for relief, but the province would also lose forever the
resources for regulating its finances. Zhang Rongmei has taken leave of his senses and,
in pursuit of wealth to line his own pocket, he has rashly and with no qualms given away
the important rights and interests of Hunan Province. This is an act of robbery and
theft, a crime that can by no means go unpunished. The mining regulations stipulate
that in all joint-capital mining ventures between Chinese and foreigners, both parties
must remain equal in terms of capital, so as to protect the nation’s sovereign rights.
Under this contract the American businessmen would have an excess investment of
U.S.$600,000, thus clearly violating the mining regulations by giving up sovereignty
to the foreigners. That is the first reason why the Hunan people can never accept the
contract. Shuikoushan in Hunan is one of the mines under provincial administration.
This contract gives the Smeltery a purchasing monopoly and a pre-fixed price on the
lead ore, so that the price is tied down by the contract, even if the market price of lead
rises considerably in future. Thus the disaster of the contract made with the Japanese
at Hanyeping will be repeated at Shuikoushan. Apart from the inevitable losses, the
Smeltery’s purchasing monopoly will in actuality turn Shuikoushan into an appendage
of the Smeltery. Thus, in addition to the loss of the rights to the Smeltery, the mining
rights are also forfeited. The consequences are too ghastly to contemplate. That is the
which might in future be adopted by the government in Beijing. Public opposition prevented the deal
from going ahead. For the text, see The Far Eastern Review, December 1919, pp. 781–82.
second reason why the Hunan people can never accept it. Furthermore, seeing that the
U.S.$200,000 that the American businessmen will have paid to the Hunan government
on concluding the contract is clearly a loan against the jointcapital Smeltery, but the
money is to be used for something other than the Smeltery, why is it that the Americans
are so willing to render this service? What will Governor Zhang do with this money? No
inquiry is needed to understand the inside story behind this murky deal. The insatiable
greed of one or two corrupt officials is being satisfied by sacrificing the rights to the
biggest mine in the province, before the people of Hunan are told anything about it.
That is the third reason that the Hunan people can never accept it. All in all, this
agreement concluded by Zhang Rongmei is a joint-capital mining enterprise in name,
but in reality it is a sellout of the mining rights. Governor Zhang’s two-year tyrannical
rule over Hunan has been marked by vicious exploitation of every possible kind. Zhang
Rongmei plays the jackal to his evil superior and is so intent on profitmaking that he
gives not the least consideration to the public welfare or to the miseries of the people.
Who could trust a person capable of such deceit? The millions of Hunan people who
have suffered hardship and misery throughout their entire lives see that unlike other
short-term embezzlements this contract will have endless consequences, affecting not
just themselves but their sons and grandsons as well, not just a few individuals but
the whole population. The masses are angry and indignant, and would rather die than
accept it. Three weeks will pass in a twinkling. It is still possible now to annul the
contract without endangering our foreign relations. We beseech Your Excellency (and
distinguished premier and ministers) to condescend to take up the matter personally.
Please cable Governor Zhang before the contract is sealed, instructing him to annul the
draft agreement immediately, return the money, and withdraw from the arrangement.
Ask the governor also to dismiss Zhang Rongmei from office, and to punish him as
a warning to corrupt officials, and to protect the mining administration. We urgently
await your instructions. Submitted to the president202 (and to the Cabinet, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce),
with greatest respect.203
Hunan citizens residing in Beijing: Mao Zedong, Zhang Boling, Wu Qilin, Chen
Shaoxiu, Wang Yunjun, Zhao Xianpu, Liu Tianhui, Huang Dugu, Bin Zuoshi, Zuo Du

--- Notes

all kinds of new schemes. He colluded secretly with Weigeke,199 a German mining engi198 Wang Zhanyuan (1861–1934), zi Zichun, was bom in Shandong Province. A former Beiyang Army
leader and supporter of Yuan Shikai, he was at this time military governor of Hubei. In 1920, he became
concurrently high commissioner of Hunan and Hubei.
199 Archibald Morsley George Grant, a mining engineer, had concluded a draft agreement with Zhang
Jingyao which would have given him a concession to develop all the mines in Hunan, except those already
in operation, for a period of fifty years, for a sum of 30 million yuan. The terms of the agreement were
extraordinarily generous, even to the point of exempting Grant from the effects of any mining laws


200 The transcription is “Wei-jia-ke”; Weigeke appears the most likely German name.
201 “Mai-yi-er Bu-liu-jin” was a trader with the American Pacific Enterprise Co. in Shanghai at this
time. In December 1919 he signed a joint venture agreement concerning the Shuikoushan Zinc Smeltery
with Zhang Rongmei. No English-language source has been found, and “Meyer Blukin (or Bljukhin?)”
is merely a guess.


202 I.e., the Shuikoushan Zinc Smeltery.
203 The president of the Beijing Government at this time was Xu Shichang (1855— 1939), zi Bowu,
hao Juren, an ex-Qing bureaucrat who was elected president by the Anfu parliament on September 4,
presidency.


--- Notes

1918. He was forced to resign after the Zhili-Fengtian War of 1922 when Li Yuanhong resumed the