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MAY 4 1907 17 MAY 07
Enclosure 2 in Sir J. Jordan's despatch No. 129 of March 13, 1907
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SLATION.
POPRA 79.
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117
Telegram of T'ang, Vice-President of the Board of
Communications, to the Viceroy at ganton, replying to ori-
ticisms regarding the Canton-Kowloon Railway Agreement.
With reference to Your Excellency's telegram No. X
to the Fai -wu Pu which I saw yesterday, and to the many
telegrams which I have received from Kuangtung in criticism
of the Canton-Kowloon Railway Agreement, I beg to make the following observations.
In 1898, Sir C. MacDonald, then British Winister,
demanded of the Taungli Yamen five Chinese Railway Concession on behalf of British capitalists, and the Yamen, on giving it consent, directed Sheng Ta Ch'ên to negotiate with the
British concessionaires.
The negotiations for the Canton-Kowloon line resulted
in a preliminary Agreement in five Articles being signed between Sheng Ta Ch'ên and the British & Chinese Corporation:
in March of 1899. Article I stipulated for the construction
of a railway from Kuangchou fu (the city of Canton) to Kew-
loon, under terms similar to those adopted in the preliminary
Agreement already signed for the Shanghai-Nanking Railway.
By Article II it was agreed that the foregoing stipu-
lation as far as practicable should be subject to the con- ditions of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway Final Agreement, when signed, and under Article III both parties agreed to make
working arrangements in conjunction with the line from Canton
to Hankow, for mutual rates.