Ondicure
22.
MO
4.889
05
Hongkong. It is therefore interesting to know what view
they take of the general principles which will be dealt
with in the Agreement. I have been able to obtain Memo-
-randa embodying the views of each of them, and I enclose
these for Your Lordship's information.
5.
Your Lordship will see from these
documents that the general principles which both these
gentlemen consider should govern the Joint Working Agree-
-ment differ very widely indeed from the principles upon
which the draft Working Agreement was drawn up which form-
-ed an enclosure in Mr. Lyttelton's Despatch of 17th.
February, 1905, to my predecessor. It is clear that their
great
advice will carry weight with the Chinese Government, and
it is probable that that Government will demand conditions
not less favourable to its interests than those indicated
by these British Officers. There is, however, an interest-
-ing precedent in the Agreement made between the three
Provinces concerned in the Hankow-Canton Railway. Article
5 is as follows:- "The net profits shall be pooled and
"divided according to the actual capital counting from the
"date of starting traffic".
6.
It was originally assumed that
the Working Agreement would be negotiated simultaneously
with
125