Insulation.
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Consul-General to Viceroy.
CANTON, 30 January, 1906.
Your Excellency,
I beg to refer Your Excellency to your letter of the 8th instant, in which you claim that the concession for the Canton-Kowloon Railway, as negotiated between Director-General Sheng of the Railway Administration and the Representative of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, is merely a draft Agreement and has not the binding effect of a regular contract. Your Excellency further claims that under the last Article of the Agreement, which provides for certain possible arrangements in connection with local conditions, you are free to alter the Agreement.
In reply, I beg to state that I duly communicated your letter to H. M. Minister and to the Governor of Hong Kong. I am now in receipt of an answer from the Governor, requesting me to point out to Your Excellency with regard to your first claim, that this Agreement was accepted by the Tsung-li Yamen and H. B. Minister at the time; that it was duly ratified by Imperial Edict; and consequently that the Viceroy of Canton cannot deny that it is a regular contract, nor ignore its terms.
With regard to Your Excellency's further claim under Article 5 of the Agreement, the Governor begs to point out, that the arrangements and amendments in question refer merely to the local conditions and difficulties which may arise
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