CONFIDENTIAL.
Sir.
C о
60757
REC
REG 11 DEC17
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG. 19th. October, 1917.
53
In view of the high price of coal at the
present time and of the dependence of Shipping Companies,
Factories and other Industries in this Colony and of the Coloni
-al Government itself on a plentiful and cheap supply of this
article, I have, in co-operation with His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, been endeavouring, without success,
to interest the Provincial Government in the production of
coal from the coal mines which are known to exist in the
Kwongtung Province.
-
2.
I now forward a letter addressed to me by
Kessrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Mr. N. J. Stabb the
Chief Manager of the Hongkong md Shanghai Banking Corporation
and Sir Poul Choter asking that a powerful Hongkong, Syndics te
which they are prepared to form should be enabled to obtain
from the Chinese Goverment a concession under which they may
prospect for and ultimately work conl and other mines in the Kwongtung Province.
The chief desideratum as I have pointed out
is the acquisition of cosl but the concession should extend to other mineral deposits which are known to exist in the Province. Cheap and readily accessible cool would give a tremendous
impetus
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WALTER LONG, M.P.
&c..
*&c.,
&c...