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lins to Hankow.
This is doubtless the contingency which the Hongkong Government wishes to avert and I am not sure how far Article 15 of the Canton-Kowloon Railway Agreement will enable us to defeat such a project should it be seriously entertained by the Chinese Government. In the negotiations which led up to the Agreement the point was frequently elaborated, but the provision of the Article is all that could in the end be extracted from the Chinese Government and it would, I fear, be hopeless to obtain any further undertaking from them at the present juncture. A line to Shantou which formed a continuation of a trunk line from Hankow would undoubtedly be detrimental to the interests of the Canton-Kowloon railway, but in their present temper both the Central and Provincial Governments will resent our utilizing a Railway Agreement with a private Corporation whose interests are not appreciably affected except as trustees for the bondholders as a means of preventing them from developing a natural outlet on their own territory which experts seem to consider more conveniently