THE HONG-KONG-CANTON RAILWAY.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
HONG-KONG, APRIL 28. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Hewett, the chairman, strongly urged the construction of the Hong-kong-Canton Railway. It appears that British investors hesitate to subscribe the capital required (£1,500,000) in view of the aid which other Governments render to their citizens in China, while similar support is refused to Englishmen by the British Foreign Office.
Mr. Hewett said that the prosperity of Hong-kong depended on the colony's maintaining its position as a distributing centre for the trade of South China. It was therefore imperative to construct a railway before a competing port was established elsewhere with a railway terminus. If funds could not be raised by other means, the colony should be allowed to guarantee for a term of years the interest on the capital required for the section of the line across the new territory—or, if necessary, should construct and own the line—while the Imperial Government should, for once, in the interests of British trade in China, break through its traditions and guarantee the interest on the cost of the section outside the colony.
The length of the proposed line is 120 miles, of which one-fifth is within Hong-kong territory and will cost one-third of the total cost of the line.
Other speakers strongly supported Mr. Hewett's views.
THE TIMES, FRIDAY
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