CO129-333 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [1-4] — Page 56

Enclosure 2

54

3.

In the report made by Mr. P. T.---

Somerville Large in 1899 for the British and Chinese Cor-

-poration the terminus was assumed to be on the reclaimed

land at Tsim Sha Tsui to the extreme South of the Peninsula

and this site had been generally accepted locally. Apart,

however, from the fact that the reclaimed land was private

property which could only be resumed at enormous cost, it

seemed to me, when I first went into the matter in the

autumn of 1904, that the area available was too restricted

for a satisfactory terminus, that it could not be extended

without unduly encroaching on the fairway of the harbour

and that access to it could involve utilizing for the

railway the main North and South road of Kowloon which

would have hampered traffic and interfered with the de-

-velopment of the town. On the other hand Hunghom Bay ap-

-peared to have the advantages now set forth in the first

paragraph of Mr. Chatham's letter.

This view received independent

corroboration from a letter dated January 13th., of which

I enclose a copy, from Mr. A. J. Barry, M.I.C.E., whom I

saw on the occasion of his visit to Hongkong shortly before

that date but with whom I had not discussed this matter.

4.

V

The plans now submitted are based

on