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Confidential
My Lord
PRINTED FOR USE,
EASTERN
No
88
COLONIAL
CA 30733
OFFICE
41029
REC
IP: 7 NOV 06
Government House.
9 October 1986
Referring to Your Lordship's telegram of the sixth instant, I have the honour to inform you that the Consulting Engineers advised that no action should be taken regarding the slow progress made on the Hongkong section of the Canton Kowloon Railway pending the receipt of a report for which they had telegraphed to the Chief Resident Engineer and in continuation of my Confidential dispatch of the 15th September on the same subject, I have the honour to enclose a copy of the report submitted by Messrs. Eves & Sir John Wolfe Barry and Partners
2. In the third paragraph of this report, Eves states that I have criticised his work unfavourably in some respects. I doubt whether the questions there put to him, when visiting the works or discussing his progress reports at our weekly meetings, can properly be called unfavourable criticisms. I certainly asked him whether he thought time would be saved by his plan of sinking a shaft of such depth close to the North Tunnel face (which shaft has quite been dispensed with and abandoned in favour of open cutting) and I may have noted a similar question with regard to the more important shaft at the South Tunnel Face. I have also asked questions as to the progress of the main railway, and why Mr. Eves attributed complaints as enabling plant to be delivered at the South Tunnel Face, and replied (in the same explanatory sense as he has now done to the Consulting Engineers). The bridges to which he refers as subject of anxiety are probably those at Tai Po Kau and Tang Shiu Kin, which I remember having remarked could require to be started early if this section was to be completed during the cold weather that is now setting in. I also remember having on several occasions insisted on the progress of the tunnel being the limiting factor in securing the early completion of the whole line, a proposition with which he cordially agreed.
I do not consider that my questions and remarks have been of the nature of criticism but
4
I have allowed it to appear that I have not been satisfied with the rate of progress
Conduct
actually my instructions in the
of the work as a whole. I have only disclosed what was the matter. I have carefully refrained from giving any directions as to the details of the work in his charge, and from deciding any point other than those which he has specifically referred for my decision, recognising his complete responsibility to the Consulting Engineers is on matter
3. My duty to report to you, keeping you fully informed and satisfied that the work is progressing satisfactorily, is equally clear to me and is especially impressed upon me by my recollection of the great delay and large outlay that came about by an unsatisfactory start having been made on the Kowloon-Canton Railway when it was first put in hand as the result of 1898.
4. I enclose a copy of a minute by the Director of Public Works to which I have referred the Resident Engineer's Report and the Consulting Engineers for his remarks. I have also concurred.
5. I also enclose a copy of the latest progress report dated the 6th instant and my § 4th Core.
The Signatory
The Soul of Dyin K9.
277-12
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient,
humble servant,
Reginald
Governor
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