CO129-216 - Governor Sir Bowen - 1884 [5-6] — Page 533

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November ultimo) I stated that the

Avere

most competent judges inclined to believe that, at all

of the next

events in the course generation, the vast Empire of

China will be opened up by

sailways and telegraphs.

2

occasion

I

C

On the same.

gave some account of

my very interesting conversation

on this subject with Li Hung chang when he entertained me at m Tientoin in last September. I.

then wrote:- "We told me

a

among

"other

"other things, that he was

"

personally

strongly in favour of the extension

of telegraphs and railways throughout

"the Empire, but that he had to contend with much opposition

from the prejudices of the Country gentry and the literate. I encouraged his Excellency by remarking that, within the

#

memory of men still alive, Electric Telegraphs had not been invented;

even in England,

England, the

while, even in

"country gentlemen and the literate" had formerly been generally-

opposed