CO129-324 - Governor Nathan - 1904 [10-12] — Page 118

nord tot!

it'

4

COPY.

117 63370

Translation of a hote from

Wu Chung-hsi, Director-General of Telegraphs,

To

H. B. M. Consul-General, Shanghai.

April 28th.. 1904.

in the matter of the telegraph poles in the New Territory at Kowloon, I have the honour to acknowledge your notes of hebruary 24th. and April 21st. As I stated in my reply of February 5th., although the Telegraphs are under Government con-

trol, yet the shares are owned by private individuais, and the

telegraph lines and poies are entirely private property. No pro- hibition has hitherto been put into force by your country for-

bidding Chinese to own property or engage in trade within your

borders - 10 hongkong, for instance. It seers then, as telegraphs

form a portion of the trade of any place, that it is unnecessary

to remove the lines and poles from the territory.

i have several times called a meeting of the

shareholders and directors and informed then of the purport of

the several communications received; the general opinion was that

consent was impossible.

I therefore have the honour to request you thus

to inform the hongkong Government.