:
[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government 0.
CHINA TRADE,
CONFIDENTIAL.
8663
[September 2) MAR 00
SHOTION 1. 478
Sir,
No. 1.
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.-(Received September 5.)
Board of Trade, September 4, 1899.
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo, inclosing copy of a despatch from Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, relative to a scheme for the formation of a Conservancy Board for the water approaches to Shanghae; and in reply, I am to request that you will state to the Marquess of Salisbury that the Board are of opinion that any scheme which will have the effect of improving the facilities of the water approaches for the purposes of navigation is deserving of encouragement.
The Board do not desire to offer any observations upon the details of the scheme as set forth in the inclosure which accompanied your letter, except to suggest that, in the event of a Conservancy Board being established, not only should proper accounts of receipts and expenditure be kept and duly published as proposed, but provision should be made for the reduction of the contemplated tax in case of a surplus of revenue as is already proposed for its increase in case of a deficit,
The Board would further suggest that special care should be taken to ensure the allocation of the funds which may be at the disposal of the Conservancy Board to proper purposes only.
I am, &c.
(Signed) WALTER J. HOWELL.
[2184 d-1]