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18001/1911
the companies' stations on foreign concessions in the
Treaty ports, and a reiteration of his previous contention
that the line belonged to a private company in respect of
which he had no authority to act. The contention as to
the Treaty rorts was rejected and the Hong Kong Government
found it difficult to accept the idea that the line was
purely a commercial undertaking.
The Governor of Hong kong in reporting on this matter
in 1904 stated that the Chinese Telegraph Administration
had always had an office in Hong Kong in the same building
as the Eastern Extension Company, but that there were
strong objections to allowing the administration to continue
to operate from British territory, except with express
sanction from the Government of Hong Kong, especially as
the fastern Extension Company were not allowed to own lines
in China. He proposed to bring in an ordinance to make it
illegal for telegraph lines to be constructed or worked
without licence from the Government and to issue a licence
to the Administration in which the ownership of the line
was definitely recognised as vested in the Colonial
Government.
He pointed out, moreover, what is the point
on which the whole position turns, that any disturbance of
the existing arrangements might react to the disadvantage
of the British and Danish Companies in their arrangements
at Shanghai and elsewhere.
The...