COPY)
Enclosure I to Sacred Despatch of 16/4/07
85
TRANSLATION.
17791
RECD
REG! 18 MAY 07,
Extract from the "Hsing Shan Po" (should be "Hsin Shan Po" or more likely "Hong Shan Po" is not correct, "Beung Shan Po" is kept as original) of the 9th April, 1907.
A telegram from Viceroy Chau to Wong Minister of the Grand Council recommending Wu Ting-fang, Vice-President of the Board of Punishment to manage the Kowloon-Canton Railway affairs, which has been received the sanction of the Throne.
The Viceroy has recently received a despatch from the Board of Foreign Affairs containing the terms of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Agreement. The Agreement has now been translated and the terms seem to be more advantageous than those of the Shanghai-Ningpo Railway Agreement. Condition 4 states that within 6 months of the signing of the agreement, the Company must get ready sufficient money to defray the expenses of a survey of the line and of such other preparations as are necessary for commencing the work of construction; and if, 6 months after the signing of the Agreement, no work has been done towards the construction, the agreement shall be void. Condition 6 states that the Viceroy shall establish a Head Office in Canton which shall have the management of the construction and the traffic of the Railway. The Office will be controlled by a Chinese Chief Director appointed by the Viceroy and he will be assisted by an English Engineer and an English Chief Accountant.
It would appear that the time fixed for the commencement of the work on the Kowloon-Canton Railway is very short, and a beginning ought to be made at once. I am informed that the construction of the Kowloon Section of the Railway was started some time ago by order of the Governor of Hongkong. In future a large number of international questions between Great Britain and China are sure to arise and in order to prevent any disagreement it is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary to secure the services of a man who is well acquainted with Foreign affairs