65.
X goo.
16912/26 can not be XP/
in
paragraph of my secret despatch, dated the 28th July 1926, and page 239 of the Colonial Office confidential print Eastern No. 144. The offer of a loan of about ten million dollars for the development of the port of Whampoa was conditional upon the construction of the loopline at Canton.
Fraced but desp fanted on? 22725 of jout Ecestern No
144
9.
I informed r. Choy that the Hong Kong Government views sympathetically all the schemes, which he put before me, but that it was beyond the financial strength of this Colony to finance projects
of such magnitude. He then said that he was on his way via Paris, to London; that he hoped to reach London not later than November next, and then to call at the
Foreign Office, with a view to discussing these schemes and if possible, arranging that some of them should
→
be financed by means of the British share of the Boxer Indemnity. He hoped, however, that the Hong
Kong Government itself would be able to finance the Whampoa project by means of a loan, as this would have distinct political advantages and would enable the Nanking Government to press for the construction
without further delay of the loop-line at Canton.
I replied that the schemes, which he had put before
me, seemed to be one integral whole, and that it would
not be possible for the Hong Kong Government to take
up one item in the whole, unless there was a
definite assurance that all the other schemes, which
he had adumbrated, would be carried through
simultaneously. I said that I would inform Your
lordship, and that doubtless r. Choy after his
discussions at the Foreign Office, would be able to
confer