Excellency & Presidential Committee of Council,
No. 359
Chief Resident Engineer's Office,
Sir J. A. Ferry & Partners,
Consulting Engineers.
Kowloon,
2nd September, 1906.
41029
Gentlemen,
1. I am in receipt of your wire dated the 28th September
"Cannot Governor say progress labour can do normal" meaning
"Governor is not satisfied with progress. Advise by telegram what is
the cause write full particulars by next post." To which I have re-
plied "Crews suffering heavily cannot import till season improves"
meaning, "We are having a great deal of sickness, Labour here is very
poor. Cannot import till season improves".
2. There are two main causes why work is not progressing as
fast as it might in another country. Malarial fever is worse here than
I have ever seen anywhere. The months from May till the end of October
are most unsuitable for keeping work, as men get sick in about a week
when sent out into the new territory. Contractors cannot be persuaded
to start work during these months and under ordinary circumstances (say
in India where I have had most of my experience) no attempt would be
made to do so considering the climate.
3. I have been greatly against starting any work except the
tunnel during these months and it was only under pressure from His
Excellency that I tried to do so. My attempts have failed simply due to
the fact that contractors won't tender for work except at exorbitant
rates, which I was not prepared to accept.
As I do not think there will be the slightest difficulty
in getting the remainder of the line finished long before the tunnel, I
did not see the necessity of giving exorbitant rates to contractors to
build the line and have it idle for a couple of years waiting for the
completion of the tunnel.
4. On the tunnel works, which I have tried to carry out as
fast as possible, malarial fever has handicapped me to an enormous
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