+
385
(2)
the wires were to be joined.
The Cables and wires
in the British territory were to be owned and maintained by the Company, who undertook to effect
necessary repairs from time to time with all despatch. It was also provided that the Adminis- tration's office should be located in the same building as the Company's office in Hongkong - the Administration paying suitable rent for such accommodation.
These arrangements were accordingly carried out to the satisfaction of all parties and worked smoothly until 1898, when the agreement come to between the British and Chinese Governments for extending the British territory of Kowloon rendered it necessary to remove the brick house and extend the Company's section of the line from the old to the new frontier in Kowloon. Consequently, in 1899 this question was raised by the Hongkong Government, with the result that the Company suggested that the Government should request the Administration to arrange to terminate their section of the Kowloon line at the new frontier, and the Company informed the Administration that they were prepared to extend their line at their own expense from the old to the new frontier, or take over the Administra- tion's existing line between the old and new boundaries at a fair valuation. Owing, however, to the Chinese and British Governments not being prepared at that time to arrange the necessary preliminaries, the matter was allowed to temporarily drop.
In the early part of 1903, the Hongkong
(Government