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Crown Agents to Sir J. Wolfe Barry & Partners
19th January 1906
Gentlemen,
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 13th and 16th instant furnishing us with your recommendations as to the manner in which it will be desirable that the British Section of the Kowloon-Canton railway should be constructed.
2. We agree with your opinion that it will be desirable that the railway should be constructed on the Departmental System and the earlier correspondence appears to show that such a procedure will be in accordance with the views of the Secretary of State and of the Colonial Government.
3. Before however submitting your recommendations for the sanction of the Secretary of State the following points require to be settled.
(a) Your instructions for the survey of the railway gave the gauge to be adopted as 4' 8" and this we understand from our previous conversations with you is the gauge of the railways already built in China and will be the standard gauge of the Country. We would however ask you to confirm this in writing.
(b) The weight of rail you have contemplated using in the estimate you have drawn up should also be stated and having regard to the traffic on the line which appears to be likely to be heavy from the beginning a somewhat heavy section of rail would appear to be desirable.
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