- CONFIDENTIAL.
37701
REC! GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG.
29th June, 1916.
78A
!
Sir,
With reference to my despatch Confidential of
the 18th of December 1, I have the honour to invite attention
3942 the
13607/08
to the letter from the China Export, Import and Bank Company, Hamburg, to their branch at Kobe, Japan, and to the comments thereon by His Majesty's Minister at Peking and His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, all of which have doubtless reached you from the Foreign Office, on the subject of the creation in German interests of a deep water port at Whampoa in the
Pearl River.
2.
The report by Lieutenant Commanders Walcott and Tickell, R.N. which formed enclosure No. 3 in Sir F.
Lugard's Confidential despatch of the 29th of October, 1908, shows that the scheme is feasible, and it is well known that it had attractions for the Chinese Authorities before their attention became distracted by internal dissensions.
3.
The scheme constitutes a danger to the continued pre-eminence of Hongkong as the distributing centre for South
China.
The best means of countering the danger is to press for the realisation of the project of joining the
Kowloon
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ANDREW BONAR LAW, M.P.,
80..
&o..
&c...
1