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بره
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proviso that, if and when conditions in China so far improve as to justify investment in, or expenditure on, one or some of the projects named, the Board may consider itself at liberty to take the appropriate action. One wonders where to look for an impartial railway expert who, in the conditions now obtaining in China, would care to make a pronouncement that the Hankow-Canton Railway, if and when completed, would be able to earn such returns as to justify its being regarded as a safe investment for Trust funds. But at this point Í venture to repeat the recommendation, which I placed before you in my secret despatch of the 20th Way, that, as regards the projected completion of the Canton-Hankow railway, an essential preliminary step is the construc- tion of a junction line at Canton to connect the southern section of that railway with the Kowloon-Canton Railway. The construction of this loop-line, at most only 44 miles long, would at once connect 112 miles of railway from Kowloon to Canton with 140 miles of railway from Canton to Shiu-kwan. It would be an immediate benefit both to this Colony and to the British and Chinese Corporation; and it would make further construction of the Canton-
Hankow railway from Shiu-kwan northwards more economical. This loop-line is of vital importance to the future of Hong Kong, and I earnestly recommend that the small sum necessary for its construction should now be set aside fro Boxer Indemity funds, in order that, so soon as political conditions at Canton permit, the work may be taken in handĮ and that instant advantage may be taken of any favourable opportunity which may present itself.
6.
Turning once more to the Report, I find that, apart from its one constructive suggestion, namely that the Indemnity Fund should be handed over to a Board of
Trustees
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