CONFIDENTIAL.
Hongkong.
Government House,
C.O. 139/7141
Hongkong, 30th January, 1904.
PRINTED FOR USE
Sir,
EASTERN No. 88 COLONIAL OFFICE
I have the honour to transmit for your information the enclosed copy of a Memorandum which I have received from a source which I regard as entirely trustworthy on the subject of action taken by the Director of Chinese Railways in consequence of shares in the American China Development Company, which is the Syndicate holding the Concession to build the Railway from Hankow to Canton, having fallen into the hands of persons of different nationality to the original concessionaires.
It has long been notorious in this country that the Belgians are in matters of Concessions for Railways in China the brokers of the Russian Government.
That Belgians should hold shares in the Company referred to above is a fact that has been regarded with the most serious apprehension by all those who are interested in the future prosperity of this Colony.
A Railway connecting Hongkong with Canton would, as I have already ventured to point out in previous Despatches, greatly benefit this Colony. But if such Railway were only a branch line, as it were, of a trunk Railway between Canton and Hankow, the stimulus to the trade and
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ALFRED LYTTELTON, K.C., M.P.,
&c.
800-
8cc.
further