CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 540

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Chinese Government under a loan agreement ia at

variance with the terms of the Preliminary Agreement.

That is not 8o. The Preliminary Agreement refers

to railways from Canton to the leased territory of

British Kowloon, that is to say from Canton city to

the border of British jurisdiction.

The Kowloon

section was mentioned in my memorandum of April 26th

because that will be built by the Hongkong Govern-

ment, and it is obviously important and advantageous

that it should connect with the Canton section in

order to secure continuous traffic. It stands to

reason that neither His Excellency Sheng nor the

British and Chinese Corporation, which is a private

Company of British merchants without any official

character, were competent to bind the British Gov-

ernment in regard to the section of railway to be

acknowledgment that the Viceroy of Canton is the pro-

per person to take this matter into consideration I

have the honour to request that the instructions of

the Imperial Chinese Government may be sent forth-

with to His Excellency to enter into negotiations

with a representative of the British and Chinese Cor-

poration with a view to the fulfilment of the en-

gagements of the Chinese Government in regard to the

Canton Kowloon Railway.

The favour of an early reply is requested.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to

Your Highness the assurance of my highest considera-

tion.

(Signed)

Ernest Satow.

1

constructed in British territory.

If that portion

of the line had been comprehended in the agreement

the fact would have been clearly stated and a rep-

resentative of the British Government would have

been a party to the document.

Your Highness having stated in the Note under

acknowledgment

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