PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
سرائيليا
UT
Reference :--
C.O. 882
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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No. 96.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received June 17, 1905.)
[Copy to Governor, June 27, 1905. Confidential. L.F.]
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copy of the under-mentioned paper relative to railways in China.
Foreign Office,
June 18, 1905.
DESCRIPTION OF ENCLOSURE.
Name and Date.
Bubject.
Conant-General Scott, No. 11, April 28, 1905 Progress made in the construction of the Hankow-
(extract).
Cauton, Kowloon-Canton Railways, and branch lines.
Enclosure in No. 96.
2. RAILWAYS.
(a) Canton-Hankow Line. Very little progress, if any, has been made during the past few months in the construction of the main line of the Canton-Hankow Railway. This is chiefly due to the complications that have arisen with the Chinese Government over the transfer of the controlling portion of the shares to the Belgians. Nor is it at all clear that matters have been satisfactorily adjusted by the return of the shares in question to the Americans; the Chinese claim that there is some secret understanding whereby the Belgian Syndicate retains the controlling interest in the line, and insist that the terms of the original concession having once been broken, it is and remains cancelled. The Viceroy is largely responsible for this attitude; he is determined, if possible, to oust the foreign element from both the management and the construction of the line; and in this policy he is strongly backed up by his colleague in Wuchang. The fact of the matter seems to be that the native authorities, having once realised what profits are to be derived from rail- ways, are naturally anxious to retain the control thereof in their own hands as far as possible; and railway concessions will beyond all doubt be considerably harder to obtain in the future than they have been in the past.
An additional reason why the Chinese are anxious to get the control of the line out of the hands of the Americans lies in the disgraceful mismanagement of the finances that is said to prevail. If all accounts are true, the amount of pecula- tion that has been going on could hardly have been exceeded by a native manage- ment; defalcations were numerous, and an expert accountant who was specially brought out from New York to put the accounts in order retired in a short time, disgusted and disheartened. There is no reason to believe that peculation would decrease if the Chinese controlled the management; but there would be this advantage from their point of view at all events--that the pickings would go into their own pockets instead of into the foreigner's.
The site selected for the terminus of the main line to Hankow is on the north of the harbour, a short distance to the West of Shameen. A sea-wall is to be built along the entire frontage so as to enable s'eamers to come alongside and load and discharge cargo immediately in front of the station. By this plan large savings. should be effected in lighterage and similar expenses.
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(b) Canton-Samshui Line. The Canton-Samshui Branch Line, which has been in complete working order for barely six months now, earns an average of between two and three thousand dollars a day, while the working expenses amount to no more than twenty per cent. of the receipts. Only passengers are carried, the goods traffic having so far not been inaugurated; but the Chinese officials, with charac- teristic foresight, have already established two likin stations on the line in antici- pation thereof, One of these stations is at Shek-wai-tong (the Canton terminus), and the other at Sainam, not far from Samshui.
It is stated that the line is to be pushed on from Samshui to Shiu-hing as soon as possible, and eventually on to Wuchow, but no actual steps have been taken in that direction so far.
(c) Canton-Whampoa Line. Meanwhile a project for a railway from Canton to Whampoa has been broached by a native official, Chang Pi-shih, formerly Chinese Consul-General at Singapore. His scheme includes wharves and godowns at Whampoa, which would accommodate large ocean-going steamers, and thus enable the latter place in some measure to compete with Hong Kong as the deep- water port of Canton. A survey of the proposed line of route has already been made by some American engineers.
There is little doubt that such a railway, once constructed, would operate pre- judicially to the interests of Hong Kong; and it is much to be regretted that the delay in commencing work on the Canton-Kowloon Line should ever have allowed the alternative scheme to assume a concrete form. Had the Canton-Kowloon Line
been in operation, or even only in course of construction at the present moment, it would scarcely have been found worth while to plan the additional line. Besides which, the conditions prevailing at Whampoa are not exactly ideal; unless the river were dredged the water would not be sufficiently deep to admit of the largest steamers coming up at all states of the tide.
(d) Canton-Kowloon Line. The line to Kowloon would certainly solve the problem in the most effectual manner, and in the way most favourable to British interests. But unless some indication is given that it is really to be taken in hand the Whampoa Railway stands every chance of becoming a fait accompli
As a matter of fact the Canton-Kowloon Line would rather prevent trade being diverted from Hong Kong than attract any very great additional volume. It would of course bring a certain amount of local traffic in its train; but would probably not develop any new through traffic. In fact, as far as through traffic is concerned, it could not possibly expect to compete with carriage by water, either in point of view of speed, of convenience, or of cheapness. The détour which the railway would have to make to include Shek-lung, the largest market in the district, would bring the length of the line up to something like 140 miles; the distance by water is under 90 miles, which the steamers could easily cover in six hours or less. The latter carry Chinese passengers the whole distance for twenty cents a head, and silk for a dollar a bale. Such through rates could hardly be remunerative to the railway. The latter will probably derive most of its earnings from local traffic between Canton and Shek-lung on the one hand, and on to Waichow, should a branch line be constructed, and between Shek-lung and Kowloon on the other; and there seems no reason to doubt that it would prove a very profitable investment.
(e) Canton-Macao Line. The only other line of railway which has so far been discussed is the Canton-Macao Railway, the agreement for which was signed last November by the Portuguese Minister in Peking, but which has so far not been ratified, and which it is now rumoured is never likely to be. This, though nominally a Portuguese undertaking, is in reality entirely controlled by the Chinese. The two principal shareholders are Ch'ên Fang, an American Chinese subject, and Lu Chiu, a Portuguese Chinese subject; the latter until recently farmed the Wei-hsing and the White Pigeon Lotteries from the Viceroy. These two are said to hold one-half of all the shares between them, the other half being held by various Macao Chinese and, to a small extent, by certain Portuguese.
It is said that the line will not run direct to Canton, but to Samshui, connecting at that place with the Canton-Samshui Railway. This would be a considerable détour, but may be due to the necessity of avoiding the large amount of bridging that would be required on the direct route, which would involve too heavy a capital expenditure. But as a matter of fact more than one route is under consideration, no one of which has yet been definitely selected.
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