81
3562
No. 57.
MR. G. V. FIDDES to MESSRS. STEPHENSON, HARWOOD AND COMPANY.
[Answered by No. 58.]
Downing Street, February 7, 1905.
*
GENTLEMEN,
I BEG to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd instant, enclosing a revise of the draft agreements for the construction and working of the Canton- Kowloon Railway.
2. The amendments shown in this revise appear to meet all the suggestions made by me to Mr. Keswick and to Mr. Witt, except that no reference is made to the proposal that an outline specification of the railway should be scheduled to the Working Agreement. If your clients are still of opinion that there are serious difficulties in the way of adopting this suggestion, the matter will not be pressed by us.
3. At the end of your letter you propose an additional clause to ensure that Customs duty will not be imposed on railway material imported viâ Hong Kong. Your clients are, of course, aware that Hong Kong is a free port, and the question is, therefore, of no practical consequence; but if you wish for the insertion of the clause, there will be no objection to the wording proposed by you, with the addition at the end of the words "should any such duty be hereafter imposed."
4. If your clients will now formally submit the draft agreements to the Colonial Office, they will be officially informed that the Secretary of State is prepared to recommend the Working Agreement to the Government of Hong Kong, if and when the assent of the Chinese Government to the two agreements is obtained. We should be glad to have six copies for the purpose.
Yours, &c.,
4675
SIR,
No. 59.
GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN to MR. LYTTELTON.
(Confidential.)
(Received February 13, 1905.)
Government House, Hong Kong, January 11, 1905.
I HAVE had under my consideration for the last two months the question of alternative routes for that part of the proposed Kowloon-Canton Railway which will lie within British territory. I have made some examination of the country to be traversed, and have collected various data, which I have now the honour to submit, with my views, for your information and for communication to the consulting engineers, should these have been appointed.
2. From the lie of the hills and position of the inlets, the railway must follow one of two main routes between the old boundaryat Kowloon and the Lo Fu Ferry, near Sham Chun, which is the most convenient place for it to cross the present frontier. The one (East route) is by tunnels or a tunnel through the hills north of Kowloon to near the head of Tide Cove, thence by the shores of that inlet and of Tolo Harbour to Tai Po, and thence across nearly level country by Sheung Shui to the frontier. The other (West route) is by the coast by Tsun Wan and Tai Lam Cheung to the head of Castle Peak Bay, near San Hue, and thence across fairly level country by Un Long to the frontier. The alternative routes are approximately shown by red and blue lines on accompanying map, the mileage on which is given from a point near the old boundary some two miles from the site at which the railway by either route would have its terminus.
3. The determining factor's in the selection of one or other of these two.
routes are:-
G. V. FIDDES.
I.
Cost of Construction.
II.
Cost of running and maintenance.
Attached to 3562
No. 58.
MESSRS. STEPHENSON, HARWOOD AND CO. to MR. G. V. FIDDES.
DEAR SIR,
(Received February 10, 1905.)
Canton-Kowloon Railway.
31, Lombard Street, London, February 9, 1905.
WE are obliged for your letter of the 7th instant, † on which we have obtained our clients' instructions and, as requested, enclose you, herewith, six fresh prints of the agreement, which is in the form in which we last submitted it to you, with the addition of the clause in regard to the Hong Kong Customs duty.
In regard to the specification, our clients instruct us that they do not consider the matter of sufficient importance to delay the agreement for it, but that they will ask the Consulting Engineers to outline a specification and if, on completion, it should appear desirable to schedule it to the agreement, it could, with your consent, be sent out to China as an addition to the agreement without involving any substantial altera- tion in it.
G. V. Fiddes, Esq.,
Colonial Office.
We are, &c.,
STEPHENSON, HARWOOD AND CO.
• No. 56.
+ No. 57.
III. Time required for construction.
IV
Time required for running.
V. Anticipated traffic and development.
VI. Administrative, naval, and military advantages.
I. COST OF CONSTRUCTION.
4. The East route from the Kowloon terminus to the Lo Fu Ferry is about 21 miles, the West route about 334 miles, in length. By the former some 13 miles would be over level country without engineering difficulties, while seven would be on hill-sides or on embankments across shallow water, and there would be about 14 miles of tunnelling. By the latter nearly 17 miles would be over level country, and an equal length on hill-sides and through some short tunnels. The cost of the
line along the East route, according to figures taken from the report made by Mr. P. T. Somerville Large, for the British and China Corporation, would be under $1,500,000. I have insufficient data on which to make even an approximate estimate of the cost of the line along the West route. "being so far out of the direct route to the north."
It was not examined by Mr. Large, Mr. Hamilton Smyth, M.I.C.E., has, I am informed, expressed a strong preference for Another railway engineer, the East route, not looking on the Shatin tunnel as a very formidable work. On the other hand I am told that Mr.W. Chatham, M.I.C.E., Director of Public Works in this Colony, but at present in England, is in favour of the West route.
5. Mr. Large's preliminary survey contemplated crossing the hills north of Kowloon under the Shatin Pass at a high level, by a route involving seven tunnels, aggregating 1,600 yards in length, and costing $800,000, three viaducts, aggregating 1,092 feet in length, and costing 8481,784, and a heavy expenditure on special earth- work. I have, unfortunately, not been able to see the plan showing this proposal, but from an examination of the ground and of the contoured map, it would seem that one low-level tunnel 14 mile in length, at the place where the 100-feet contours on
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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