CO882-6 — Page 563

Attached to 6209

DEAR MR. FIDDES,

96

No. 72.

MR. W. KESWICK, M.P., to MR. G. V. FIDDES.

3, Lombard Street, London, E.C., March 6, 1905. YOUR letter of the 2nd instant* is perfectly clear to me and I am satisfied that we are in complete accord as to the character of the line to be constructed.

G. V. Fiddes, Esq., C.B.,

Colonial Office,

Yours, &c.,

W. KESWICK.

97

7. Sir J. Wolfe Barry would no doubt be prepared to advise and adjudicate upon this point if the Secretary of State should think fit that he should be consulted in the matter, and the proper time for going into the question would appear to be when his report and estimate on the completion of the survey have been received and considered.

Enclosure 1 in No. 73.

I have, &c.,

E. E. BLAKE.

9278

Downing Street, S.W.

No. 73.

(E./261/1.)

CROWN AGENTS to Sir J. WOLFE BARRY AND PARTNERS.

Kowloon-Canton Railway.

March 7, 1905.

SIR,

CROWN AGENTS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received March 23, 1905.)

[Copy of Enclosures to Governor, March 24, 1905., Confidential. L.F.] (Confidential.)

Whitehall Gardens, London, S.W., March 22, 1905. Hong Kong-Kowloon-Canton Railway.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th Feb- ruary, No. 5704/1905,† on the subject of the proposed railway between Kowloon and Canton.

2. Upon the receipt of your letter I at once placed myself in communication with Sir John Wolfe Barry and inquired whether he would be prepared to act as Consulting Engineer for the work, and having subsequently discussed the question with him personally, I requested him to furnish us with an estimate of the cost of the proposed detailed survey by the two alternative routes.

3. I now beg to enclose, for the information of Mr. Secretary Lyttelton, copies of our letter to Sir J. Wolfe Barry and Partners and of their replies, from which it will be seen that they estimate the cost of the proposed survey at £5,500 and their own fee at £525, making a total probable cost of £6,025.

4. The estimate and the fee appear to us to be reasonable, having regard to the great amount of skill and care which will be required in laying out the proposed east route, and we now await the Secretary of State's instructions as to proceeding.

5. We do not understand from your letter that the arrangements with British and Chinese Corporation set out in the papers which you have communicated to us are to be turned into a formal contract, at least at present. We are, therefore, not taking any action in this direction.

6. There is, however, one point in the arrangement with the Chinese Corpora- tion which it appears to us might with advantage be altered in the interests of the Government of Hong Kong. We observe that it is proposed that the net profit or loss on the whole line should be divided between the Governments of China and Hong Kong in proportion to the actual cost of building and equipping the sections belonging to the two Governments respectively. I beg, however, to point out that the effect of such an arrangement would be to divert to the profit of the Chinese Government any savings which we may be able to effect on behalf of the Government of Hong Kong in carrying out the Colony's section of the work. I would, therefore, suggest that the arrangement should be altered to that which we understand exists in the case of the Forth Bridge, and probably in other cases, where the excessive cost of particular works or sections of a line are compensated for by the particular sections being treated as having a greater mileage than they actually possess and as a set off by way of bonus against the higher cost of their construction. Such a system would have the effect of retaining in the interests of the Government of Hong Kong any savings which we may be able to effect in the construction of the Colonial section of the line, as compared with the probably extravagant cost of the Chinese section which will be entailed by the manner in which it is to be financed.

No. 70.

↑ No. 68.

GENTLEMEN,

In our conversation yesterday afternoon I informed you of the circumstances in which the Government desired to obtain your services as Consulting Engineers in connection with the proposed railway from Kowloon to Canton, and I explained to you the system under which the work will be carried out.

2. I now enclose, for your information, a copy of a despatch on the subject from the Governor of Hong Kong and I have to request that you will inform us what you estimate will be the cost of a survey:

(A) between Kowloon and the Lo Fu Ferry by the east route; (B) between Kowloon and the Lo Fu Ferry by the west route;

and what will be the amount of your fee for undertaking and reporting upon the result of such survey.

3. The survey should be a detailed location survey, from which a detailed estimate could be prepared in each case and you will see that it is desired that the information. should be furnished at the earliest possible date.

GENTLEMEN,

Enclosure 2 in No. 73.

Sir J. WOLFE BARRY to CROWN AGENTS.

I am, &c.,

E. E. BLAKE.

21, Delahay Street, Westminster, S.W., March 13, 1905.

WE beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, E./261/1, of the 7th March,

and of the copy of the despatch and plan which accompanied it.

We shall be happy to act as Consulting Engineers to the railway in question and

are giving careful attention to the preparation of an estimate of the cost of the surveys required.

GENTLEMEN,

We are, &c.,

J. WOLFE BARRY,

For Sir J. Wolfe Barry and Partners.

Enclosure 3 in No. 73.

Sir J. WOLFE BARRY to CROWN AGENTS.

March 15, 1905.

In reply to your communication, 251/E./1, of the 7th March, 1905, we beg to inform you that we estimate the cost of the surveys for the portion of the above railway between Kowloon and Lo Fu Ferry (A) by the east route (about 21 miles) and (B) by the west route (about 884 miles) at about £5,500 in accordance with the attached detailed statement. Our fees for reporting upon the result of the survey would be £525.

We understand that it is desired that the two suggested routes should be care- fully investigated, that the centre line selected in each case should be marked out on the ground and working surveys and sections prepared, together with type drawings of bridges and other works and detailed estimates of cost.

18881

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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