9421
Be IA MAR 09
CANTON KOWLOON RAILWAY
196
and
HONG KONG KOWLOON RAILWAY.
Sir John Wolf Barry called upon me last evening and informed me that the Foreign Office had directed the attention of the Chinese Government to the conduct of the local authorities at Canton, who had deposed his firm from the position of Consulting Engineers to the Canton-Kowloon Railway now in course of construction, and in lieu thereof had appointed a Chinaman as Consulting Engineer to the railway.
He said he hoped the Foreign Office might be able to get the decision reversed, especially as the Chinese Ambassador here was very uneasy about it; but he feared that the Canton people, who were very strong, had taken steps in order to manipulate the cost of construction and equipment of the railway in the interests of a gang who were doing their best to make something out of it.
Sir John said that he did not attach any personal importance to the loss of the business, but that indirectly what had been done was a serious matter for the Canton-Kowloon Railway, and still more serious for the Hong Kong-Kowloon Railway, in which we are deeply interested. In the first place he intimated that he would have to write to the newspapers and point out that