CONFIDENTIAL
WHAMPOA
PORT
DEVELOPMENT
41
BY SAFE HAND
(& 2 copies)
B.E. Shanghai, No.211
Cies to:-
Foreign Office, No.124
(&2 copies)
Governor, Hongkong, No.167.
British Consulate-General,
CANTO N.
21st November 1938.
Enclosure No.1
His Excellency
Sir,
In view of recent events and the possibility that the Japanese may be contemplating the development of Canton as a South China emporium for the sale and distribution of their own goods, I consider that it may be as well to examine the question of the possible development of the Port of Whampoa and the effect which this port, when and if, constructed, may be expected to have in Japanese hands on the trade of Hongkong.
2.
I have the honour to beg reference in the first instance to Mr. R.H. Scott's Confidential despatch No. 11 of March 18th, 1936, regarding an interview with Dr. Lo Wen-kan, the then Chairman of the Whampoa Port Development Association, relating to the Whampoa Port Development schemes and recording in paragraphs 7 and 8 his interesting conclusions from that interview (a copy of which is enclosed for convenience of reference). At the time of writing this despatch, Mr. Scott was Acting Trade Commissioner at Hongkong, and his despatch may be termed the basic report up-to-date regarding the Whampoa Port Development scheme as it then stood. Sir Andrew Caldecott in his secret despatch (unnumbered) of February 19th, 1937, addressed to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, quotes Mr. Scott's conclusions in
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, K.C.M.G.,
ETC, Etc. Etc.,
His Majesty's Ambassador,
British Embassy,
SHANGHAI
extenso