COPY.
No. 66.
Railway.
No./
14993
C
023214
225
Office of Chinese Maritime Customs
for Kowloon and District,
York Buildings,
Hongkong, 24th. February, 1914.
Dear Sir,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of
the 14th. current, informing me that the inauguration of the pro-
-posed night service of trains between Kowloon and Canton is post-
-poned until the 16th. March nert; that the trains are intended to carry passengers only and will call at Taipo only on the British
Section, no booking being allowed to Shunchun or to any other
intermediate point between Kowloon and Canton with the exception of
Sheklung, and that it is augeated that the trains should be lock-
-ed before arriving at Shunchun so as to avoid the necessity of
Customs Officers remaining on duty at that station.
&
In my letter of the 9th. current I pointed out
that this night service would entail extra work upon the Customs
Staff, some of whom will have to be on duty from about 10.20 p.m.
to 1.20 a.m., to attend to the trains when passing through Shum-
-chun as well as to the trains arriving at and leaving Kowloon
Station. It is recognised and established principle at all places
where the Chinese Customs function that special fees are payable
for work done outside of ordinary Customs working hours, and these
fees are based either upon an overtime scale or upon a fixed month- -ly payment. The scale of fees which I have been instructed to enforce, with such modifications as may be arrived at by agreement with the Railway Administration, is that in force on the Antung Railway, but as this applies more particularly to the examination and release of cargo I am prepared to suggest to the Inspector- -General that a strict application of the overtime scale might bear too heavily upon the traffic you expect to attract by the proposed night service, and that the alternative of a monthly charge should be made for the services of Customs Officers attend- -ing these trains, so long as they are restricted to the carriage