COPY
HONGKONG,
The Hon: Mr. W. T. Southorn, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary,
HONGKONG.
27th September, 1929.
Sir,
71
Your reference_5959/1929.
We have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 24th September, to hand this morning, being in reply to our letter dated 29th July, 1929, in which we registered a complaint regarding the support which we had received from the Public Works Department. We further note that our letter of 29th July was unsigned, which ommission we much regret, and for the sake of keeping all these matters in order, we would like to suggest that you return the said letter to us, when it will be duly signed.
Meantime, however, kindly note that the signature should have been provided by our Mr. N. M. Currie.
We exceedingly regret to observe from your letter under reply that, after having made enquiries in the matter, you have been advised that every opportunity has been afforded us to prove our claim by tests of Colfix which have been made on local road surfaces. So far as this general reference is concerned, we agree that tests have been made, but we are very much afraid that our views in regard to the satisfaction given in this matter, and particularly to the support extended to us by the local Public Works Department Officials, are somewhat alienated from what one could gather from the text of your reply. It seems to us that, to explain the matter
fully and to have the actual position in writing as it has been found to exist by us, will necessitate a somewhat lengthy reply to your letter, and since the whole dispute, naturally, from our own point of view, is of great importance, we must crave your indulgence should this letter be somewhat copious.
In the first place, we must take exception to the statements that the surfaces were "prepared to the satisfaction of and also "under the direct supervision of your own representatives". With regard to the first point, wecan only say that, with the exception of one instance, the roads were not prepared to our satisfaction, neither were the requisite materials on the spot, but we shall endeavour to bring this point more strongly before you by recording, according to our memory, the various tests which were given to us.
(1)
The first test was in 1927, opposite one of the P.W.D. depots at Praya East, and we do admit that, on this occasion, the test was not at all satisfactory, neither to ourselves nor to the P.W.D. Authorities. There is, however, a reason for this, and the cause of same was due to the fact that, prior to our Works being in operation, the material utilised was supplied from Home and was, therefore, anything from two to three months old. We have explained to our various clients, including the local P.W.D., that Cold Emulsion never does improve through lying any length of time and, consequently, it does necessitate fresh material being used, and as early as possible. You will, therefore, see in this that one of the fundamental reasons for the flotation of a company in Hongkong and in other various places throughout the world, is to ensure that prospective buyers can have the material in a fresh condition and in