:
CONFIDENTIA L.
Hongkong.
で
164
CO.
35482
RECE
REG 26 SEP 06:
Government House,
Hongkong, 28th.August,1906.
146
6
My Lord,
I received by last mail from the War Office
a copy of the new "Rules for the Transliteration of Place-
Names occurring on Foreign Maps" compiled in the Topogra-
phical Section of the General Staff, and looking through
the part of this work dealing with maps of China (pages 62
to 76) it has occurred to me that in the reproduction of
the Map of the Province of Kuang Tung, forwarded under
cover of my Confidential despatch of the 2nd. May, 1906,
the
Topographical Sectin may think necessary to alter the spell-
A
ing of the place names occurring on the map. The Chinese
characters for these names are I believe transliterated on
the map into the Cantonese and not into the Pekingese dia-
lect as in Wade's system. This is right in view of the fact
that in the country covered by the map Cantonese is spoken
but in reproducing the Cantonese sounds it is probable that
foreign rather than English equivalents have been used.
2.
I have the honour to request that the War
Office
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF ELGIN, K.G.,
80.
800 • 1
8C.