COPY.
CHINA
ASSOCIATION
HONG KONG.
2
4th April,
1904.
414
Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 12th February enclosing reply of the Foreign Office to your letter forwarding mine of 12th December last on the subjects of the opening of Waichow and the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, and the extract from your Minutes dealing with the latter were read with much interest by my Committee, who desire to thank you for the promptitude with which their representations were placed before the Foreign Office.
Referring to the remarks in the former, we were fully cognisant of the fact that the opening of Waichow forms part of the consideration to be granted by the Chinese Government in return for the payment of the surtax under Article VIII of the Treaty of 1902, but we hoped that the Peking Authorities might be persuaded to antedate the concession both as a mark of goodwill to Great Britain and as a measure calculated to promote the development of Kwangtung. This hope appears to be shared by the Foreign Office, as instructions have been sent to Sir Ernest Satow to urge upon the Chinese Authorities the desirability of opening Waichow, which I earnestly trust will have the desired result.
With regard to the delay in the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, it is some satisfaction to receive the assurance of your Chairman that "there should now be no greater delay than is usually inseparable in the case of Chinese negotiations in settling the final agreement".
Having obtained the concession some five years ago, my Committee are rather at a loss to understand what the final agreement can be required at this late date. The Shantung Railway, the concession for which was secured not much earlier, is now...
Joseph Welch, Esq.,
Hon. Secretary,
China Association
London.
X Keswick