•4
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45
53770/36
• Secret.
6.
In paragraph 3 of my secret (2) despatch of the 24th September last I quoted Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
as saying that this extension would cross the Canton-Kowloon
line on the level and that their connection would follow as a
matter of course but without advertisement.
I remember
thinking at the time that a level crossing would not be in
accordance with modern railway practice or conduce to the
easy manipulation of traffic, and I have not therefore been
surprised to learn that the extension of the Hankow-Canton
line is being constructed so as to cross the Kowloon railway
by an overhead bridge. In this connection however it was
suggested by Mr. S.H. Street, Engineer-in-Chief of the
Chinese Section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway, (and his suggestion was indirectly reported to me) that representations might be made to the Chinese Ministry of Railways for the
avoidance of an overhead crossing by joining the Hankow-Canton
extension to the Kowloon line at the ninth kilometre from
Canton and leading it off to Whampoa from another junction at
the fifteenth kilometre, i.e., that the two railways should
share the same metals from the ninth to the fifteenth
kilometre.
7. This suggestion was of course a very different thing
from the level crossing contemplated by the Generalissimo and,
if pressed, would have aggravated (and have been promptly
frustrated by) the Cantonese opposition to the linking of the
two railways, which the Generalissimo found so strong as to
necessitate the physical connection being made later 'as a
matter of course but without advertisement'. Moreover
Mr. Street's plan would have led to undesirable complications,
and I may here quote from a minute by Major R.D. Walker,
Manager of the British Section:-
"Mr. Street's proposal is in my opinion most
undesirable; considerable delays to traffic are