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56
takes exception I would ask for intimation thereof by
telegraph. Pending receipt of Your Lordship's telegram I
do not propose that the actual draft of the Working Agree-
-ment shall be placed in the hands of the Chinese delegate,
if it can be avoided.
4.
As regards the form of the Agree-
-ment, Your Lordship will observe that we have endeavoured
to exclude from it everything which is not concerned with
general principles, and to include all details in a
supplementary "Code of Procedure" based upon similar Codes
in India and elsewhere. There are a few points in the
draft Agreement which call for special comment. The first
is the principle which underlies the whole Agreement, viz.:-
the joint-management under a Board of Control and a
General Manager. This is the system stipulated in Article
18
of the Loan Agreement and it is the system approved in
Your Lordship's Despatches referred to above. It is more-
-over beyond doubt the most economical-and the most
efficient method of working the Railway: and I think if
the Chinese Authorities accept Articles 4, 5 and 6, as
drafted, sound administration of the undertaking will be
assured. I am also of opinion that the proposed arrange-
-ment is an eminently fair one; for, while the Chairman
of