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1C942231
Rec'd 28 MAR 04)
The Hongkong and Canton and Macao Steamboat Company, Limited.
Sir,
Hongkong, 12th February, 1904.
The Honourable
In accordance with a resolution of the seventy-fifth ordinary half-yearly meeting of the Shareholders of this Company held on the 8th instant, I have the honour to enclose three copies of the minutes of the said meeting and beg leave to request that His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government will be pleased to transmit the same to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies with such representations thereon as he may think fit to offer.
For the information of His Excellency it may be mentioned that the two French Steamers "Paul Beau" and "Charles Hardouin" owned by the Messageries Cantonnaises which have recently been placed on the line between this Colony and Canton are in receipt of an annual subsidy from the French Government amounting to 326,000 francs or roughly speaking about $4,000 per month each. It is obvious that where running expenses for each vessel are probably not in excess of $4,500 per month each, such material aid will enable these boats to work at a profit while accepting rates of freight and passage which to other competing steamers not so subsidised would inevitably result in very considerable loss. It is understood that the subsidy holds good for ten years, and given a sufficient number of such state-aided vessels it is clear that under prevailing conditions the transfer of the carrying trade between...
A. M. Thomson, Acting Colonial Secretary.