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44
of a large ocean freighter or mixed passenger and cargo steamer, where only a portion of the cargo was consigned to Canton, demurrage and tonnage and pilotage dues would make a visit to Whampoa disproportionately expensive. Moreover, it would in any case be necessary for such a vessel to call at Hong Kong to discharge
cargo consigned to Hong Kong, Swatow, and other small
ports in South China; and it would be more convenient also to discharge cargo for Canton at the same time.
The same argument applies to loading cargo. Again, if freight were transhipped at Whampoa, further handling
and transport would still be necessary: Canton is ten
miles away, and the costs of transhipping at Whampoa into lighters or junks, and transport to Canton, would
be little less than the cost of transhipping at Hong Kong,
and transport thence.
On the other hand, like so many other enterprises
undertaken in China, the success or failure of the
project will not depend wholly on technical and
commercial factors, and the scheme cannot be judged
entirely from this point of view. The Kwangtung
authorities are evidently in earnest about the
construction of a port at Whampoa, and it is possible
that, if after completion it is found to be little used,
steps will be taken to force shippers to use it even
although the result is to increase freight charges, the
weight of which will fall on consumers in Kwangtung".
5. Whatever may be the prospects of this development of
Whampoa (and I do not find Hong Kong mercantile or shipping
interests seriously perturbed by them) there is of course no
possible ground on which the Colonial Government could lodge
objections or make representations against it. I revert
therefore to the matter of the extension of the Hankow-Canton
railway mentioned in my first paragraph.
is confortant
7.2