C
0.
581
36735
RECEIVED 6 OCT 06
Sir J. Wolfe Barry & Partners to Crown Agents.
21, Delahay Street, S.W.
28th September 1906.
Kowloon-Canton Railway
British Section.
Gentlemen,
With further reference to your letter E/261/2 dated 17th September, enclosing copy of cable from His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong as to the progress and inspection of the above Railway, we beg to inform you that we have cabled to Mr. Eves and requested him to send us a full report on the progress. It should be borne in mind that in starting the construction of the Railway, there is a large amount of preliminary work and organisation to be done before much progress can be seen.
The work being of an exceptionally heavy nature, it requires a large equipment of construction plant, and as the greater part has to be obtained from this country, it must be some time before the work is in full swing. It appears from Mr. Eves' general letter No. 10, which we have just received, that he is having considerable difficulty in procuring efficient native labour and that he is desirous of importing suitable labour, as to which there appear to be some objections of a local nature. In paragraph 37 of that letter he states that most of the good coolies have left the works for the purpose of rice planting, and that his progress has been thereby very much handicapped.
Under...