471
Lugard suggested two separate rates of division, one to apply on the Canton half of the line and one on the Kowloon half, Armed with this final reply of the Hongkong
Government I sought a further interview with Lord Li and on the 3rd, instant handed to him a paraphrase of the Governor's telegram.
It was a fortunate coincidence that immediately previous to the interview the Wai Wu Pu had sent an urgent message to me, at the instance of the Viceroy at Canton where
sone explosives had just been seized, asking that the Governor
might be moved to cooperate in supervising the movements of
revolutionaries from Hongkong and I was able, as the en-
closed minutes of the meeting record, to urge this in support
of my claim for a favourable reception of the British terus,
I pointed out the obvious disadvantages of a
merely provisional arrangement for the division of profits
forming part of an agreement which on other points was to be
binding for ten years, but Lord Li objected that ten years waJ
too long a period for the Chinese section to be condemned to
an almost certain loss, He offered to extend the term of the
arrangement