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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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8. Since writing the above paragraphs I have received the enclosed copy of a letter from the Chamber of Commerce giving cover to one addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the subject of this same railway.

9. The Chamber suggest that the portion of the railway in Colonial territory should be either guaranteed or built by the Colonial Government, while the portion from our borders to Canton should be guaranteed by the Imperial Government.

10. It seems to me that a Colonial guarantee for the whole line might be more easily arranged. The whole question is one, however, which will, no doubt, receive your consideration, and it is not worth while discussing details until some definite line of action has been decided upon.

11. I can only assure you on behalf of the Colony that its inhabitants are willing to make reasonable sacrifices if necessary, in the matter of increased taxation or otherwise, in furtherance of this project, which all concur in deeming vital to Colonial and Imperial interests.

(Private.)

I have, &c.,

F. H. MAY, Officer Administering the Government.

Enclosure 1 in No. 24.

KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY.

REPORT of the PROCEEDINGS at Government House, Hong Kong, on Thursday, the 19th May, 1904, when a Deputation consisting of the Committee of the China Association waited upon and presented an Address to His Excellency FRANCIS HENRY MAY, C.M.G., the Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong.

The Deputation consisted of the following gentlemen:---

Mr. R. C. Wilcox (Messrs. Turner and Co.).

Mr. D. R. Law (Messrs. Butterfield and Swire).

Mr. H. E. Tomkins (Messrs. Reiss and Co.).

Mr. E. S. Whealler (Messrs. Dodwell & Co.).

Mr. A. G. Wood (Messrs. Gibb, Livingston & Co.).

Mr. G. W. F. Playfair (National Bank of China). Hon. Gershom Stewart (Messrs. Stewart Bros.).

His Excellency duly received the Deputation.

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Mr. R. C. WILCOX said:-Your Excellency, when we, the Committee of the China Association, decided to seek this interview we did so with the full conviction that we should find in you a sympathetic listener. Like ourselves, Your Excellency has lived and laboured in this Colony for a long period of years. You know its requirements, its wants and its capabilities, and we know very well by long experience that the utmost interest in its welfare. Anything menacing that welfare or threatening danger to the continued prosperity of the Colony would, I am sure, meet with your instant and earnest attention. In that belief we come to you to-day. The China Association as you are aware is the only purely representative British institution in the Colony, and the Committee would feel that they had neglected their duty-their duty to the members and to the Colony-if they left one stone unturned to secure that Kowloon should be made the seaport terminus of the great trunk railway of China. If by any chance, whether by want of foresight, want of energy, or want of expendi- ture, that terminus should be diverted to any other port on the coast, whether Chinese or foreign, it would be a real disaster to the Colony. In fact, it would be an irre- parable misfortune. To prevent that calamity we have endeavoured to take some action, and we now come to you to-day to lay our views before you. With these few prefatory remarks, I propose to read the Address we have prepared.

Mr. WILCOX then proceeded to read the following Address:- Your Excellency, The Committee of the China Association have now for the past six months had under their consideration the question of the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway. They have, as you are aware, made urgent representa- tions on the subject to the London Branch of the Association for transmission to the

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Foreign Office, and they have not rested on their oars since those communications were opened. On the 4th ultimo, writing to the parent Branch, they drew forcible attention to the completion of the Shantung Railway to Tsinanfu on the 15th March, and dwelt on the fact that the German Railway Syndicate had thus in five years completed a line of 252 miles in length. With this accomplished fact before them," I went on to say, "the Colonists of Hong Kong may be excused for wondering why the British concessionaires lag so woefully in the race with foreign enterprise. My Committee hope, however, now that the attention of the public and of the Govern- ment has alike been fully aroused to the grevious delay in carrying out an under- taking of such moment to Hong Kong and to British trade, it will be commenced without further loss of valuable time. They also trust that the British Government will see their way to give some assistance by subsidising that portion of the line which will run through British territory. This subject, I may add, is of such first import- ance to this Colony that it can never again be allowed to slumber." Those remarks, Your Excellency, were penned in the full conviction that the Colony would support this branch of the Association in a determined effort to secure the prompt commence- ment of this most important work. I am glad to say that since then the Chamber of Commerce has taken up the question energetically, and the Press lose no opportuni- ties of ventilating it. Soon after our annual meeting, Mr. Gershom Stewart, who had meantime joined the Committee, went for a trip North, and be undertook to make representations to the British Minister at Peking on the subject, and also to collect information as to the progress of railway development in Central and North China. He has since placed the result of his inquiries before the Committee, who in consequence resolved to seek an interview with Your Excellency and lay certain conclusions and propositions before you for consideration by the Colonial Office. The Peking-Hankow section of the great trunk line that is planned to unite the capital with the southern seaboard of China, and whose terminus is Canton, is, Mr. Stewart finds, being rapidly pushed forward from both ends, 400 kilometres being laid at each, leaving a gap of about 400 kilometres in between, the section being some 1,200 kilometres in length. As the line is being made at the rate of about a kilo- metre per day, it may reasonably be concluded that the whole of the track will be completed in about a year. A bridge has to be built over the Yellow River, which will be about 34 miles long, and owing to the shifting sandy nature of the bed of this river, it will probably prove a difficult though not by any means an insuperable work. It is believed that the whole of this section will be completed in two years' time. The two portions of the railway already laid are open to traffic, the interval between being covered by native conveyances. The line is largely used by the natives, and the earnings are variously stated as from $5,000 per day, to $200,000 per month. The veteran Viceroy Chang Chih-tung recently performed the journey to Peking by means of the uncompleted railway. The next section of the line, from Hankow (or rather Wuchang) to Canton, is also now under construction. The concession to con- struct this was, as Your Excellency is aware, originally given to an American Syndi- cate, but we now hear that the Belgians have acquired a controlling influence in the line, although the name of the Company (the American China Development Co.) is maintained with its Head Office in New York. This transfer of interest is regarded with great disfavour by the Department of State at Washington, but apparently they do not see their way to interfere so long as the concession is nominally held by the American Company with the Head Office in New York. Nor can the British Govern- ment very well interfere for the same reason, although it is stated that in the event of the Americans not utilizing the concession, the reversion of it was to be given to British capitalists. Seeing that the Chinese Ministers regard the British railway concessionaires with scant favour, on account of their entire failure up to date to in any way utilise the concessions already granted to them, it would be a somewhat difficult task for His Britannic Majesty's Minister at Peking to obtain this transfer. He would naturally be hampered by the inaction shown by the British and Chinese Corporation, and the Chinese Government would not improperly require a guarantee that the concessions already made should be utilised before further ones were granted. The Committee feel, nevertheless, that the transfer of the Hankow-Peking line to the Belgians should not be allowed to pass unchallenged, for if this is done it would be quite possible for them to re-transfer the railway to any Foreign Government ready to give them a fair profit on the transaction, and in this way the whole of the Trunk Railway of China might fall under the control of a Power avowedly hostile to British