CANTON-HAKKOW RAILWAY AND THE
CONSORTIUM.
74
25,000,000.
£8,000,000.
The contract for completion of the Canton-Hankow Railway,
which was the subject of a telegram from the Governor of Hong
Kong to the Colonial Secretary on June 11th, may give rise to
misapprehensions and false hopes unless the actual position is
explained at some length.
The proposal sponsored by the Governor of Hong Kong is
that His Majesty's Government should support a firm named
Reiss, Massey and Company in obtaining this contract; that the
cost of the whole project is estimated at about five million
pounds; and that this will be secured on eight million pounds
of the unpaid balance of the Boxer Indemnity. Keiss, Massey
and Company have stated that they are prepared to purchase in
Great Britain a fair proportion of raw materials and railway
stock.
Since the date of the Governor's telegram a telegram has
been received from His Majesty's Minister to China (then at
Manking) to the effect that the representative of Reiss, lassej
and Company had informed the Commercial Counsellor at Shanghai
that the Chinese Minister of Railways had told him that
Indemnity funds are now available for railway construation,
and that he is prepared to discuss terms of the Canton-Hankow
Railway contract with the Canadian Company, which Messrs.
Reiss, Massey and Company represent,
On receipt of this telegram, a telegram was sent at
once to His Majesty's Minister instructing him to inform the
Chinese Goverment that no Indemnity funds would be available for railway construction that ignores existing contracts; that
the completion....