Received
Incl.
Foreign Office
to
F. O.,
Endos / mito
5
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
Pica
No. 1.
19604/ [May 23.] པར་གནས་
REG SECTION 305
Page
Hong Kong Branch of China Association to China Association.-(Communicated May 23.)
Dear Sir,
Hong Kong, April 21, 1905. I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of the following telegram received through the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank on the 13th instant :--
"With reference to your telegram of the 31st, have conferred with British Government, but do not attach much importance to rumours. Railway negotiations are in progress, Peking."
to.
In my letter of the 3rd instant, confirming our telegram of the 31st ultimo, I assured that we had the best authority for the statement therein made.
It was no you mere rumour that led us to communicate in such urgent terms. Rumour had been active, but until something definite became known to us we were unwilling to move in the matter. Not that many of the recent rumours were without foundation. On the contrary, their truth is now manifest in many ways. The fact is that for some time past evidence has been accumulating which tends to show that a serious movement is on foot having for its object the opening of a port to serve eventually as the terrainus of the Hankow-Canton line. The idea is held to be impracticable by many whose opinion is entitled to respect, and who rely upon the natural advantages possessed by the harbour of Hong Kong to defeat all efforts to challenge the supremacy of this port. We hope that this optimistic opinion is warranted by all the facts of the case, but there are certain facts which ought not to be lightly regarded, and which are yet seldom referred We have nothing to oppose to the view that as regards the larger ocean-going vessels there is nothing to be feared. The new Pacific liners can never go to Whampoa, nor can the German mail-steamers; no steamers, in fact, drawing anything over 26 feet. But with respect to steamers drawing no more than this, it is unsafe to assume that no rivalry can be set up. A scheme for dredging a channel through the bar below Whampoa the so-called "second bar"-has recently been put forward, and is receiving the favourable consideration of the Chinese authorities. It is proposed to devote a large sum of money to this object, of which a considerable part will be set aside from the Imperial Maritime Customs revenue. The proposed dredging operations would only be required to cut a channel some quarter of a mile long. If successful, ships drawing as much as 26 feet could get up to Whampoa at spring tides, and as much as 24 feet at neap tides. In referring to the proposed opposition port we have described it as "at or near Whampoa." The avidity with which land in the vicinity is being bought up shows that the Chinese are going to try and make it there. A group of influential Chinese are interesting themselves in the project, and we have good reason to believe that they are receiving every encouragement from the Chinese authorities. It should not be forgotten that the latter view the existing Kowloon frontier arrangement as a serious handicap to the effective safeguarding of the Kuangtung revenue. They have never ceased to resent the action of the British Government in taking over the whole of the waters of Deep Bay and Mirs Bay, and they regard the Hong Kong Government as the protector of the local smuggling activities, which, they believe, are a source of considerable loss to the Customs revenue. They are apt, therefore, from the Viceroy downwards, to view this Colony with no friendly eye, and the prospect of drawing away our trade, or any part of it, to their own shores is one which can hardly fail to appeal to them most powerfully. The group of influential Chinese already referred to appear to be led by the man who is the guiding spirit of the Swatow to Chao-chou-fu Railway, at present in course of construction. A similar scheme for a Chinese-subscribed and Japanese-built railway from Canton to Whampoa has been under consideration for some time past.
Hitherto all purely Chinese railway proposals, private or official, have come to nothing, and it would have been safe formerly to assume an attitude of indifference towards news of the kind. Latterly, however, the position has changed. The appear- ance on the scene of the Japanese engineer, working in combination with the Chinese capitalist, has created an entirely new set of circumstances. As you are doubtless
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