CO129-344 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 405

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through Yungchang on the 12th of that month, and I again left the party on the 23rd April at the Shweli-Salween Divide, which is a couple of days' journey away. The party arrived here on the 13th instant, and will leave for Bhamo to-morrow.

The results have been satisfactory. Mr. Lilley states that there is no insuperable obstacle in the way of the construction of a railway from here to Tali, and that the cost will not be prohibitive. A map on the scale of 1 inch to a mile has been made. The course of the Yangpi and Shunpi Rivers has been marked where there were only dotted lines on existing maps. Three new passes have been discovered, several hundred feet lower than those on the trade route. There has, moreover, been no friction on the road.

The Taotai has been severely blamed by the Viceroy on several occasions for having countenanced the reconnaissance, and I am sure that he will be, openly at least, strongly opposed to any expedition by British officers which may be proposed for next

I have, &c.

year.

(Signed)

H. A. OTTEWILL.

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

CHINA RAILWAYS.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[19772]

No. 1.

Foreign Office to British and Chinese Corporation.

C

4463 [June 21.]

RECE SECTTON 1 JUL 07

Foreign Office, June 24, 1907. Sir,

AM directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, on the subject of the probable effect upon the lines conceded to the British and Chinese Corporation of the proposed Shanghae-Kashing Railway.

A copy of your letter will be sent to His Majesty's Minister at Peking, but I am to inform you that the Secretary of State, while recognizing that the Shanghae- Kashing line, if ever completed, might divert some of the traffic from the Shanghae- Nanking and Soochow-Ningpo Railways, still considers that it would be inadvisable for the Corporation, in their own interest, to make any protest on the subject to the Chinese Government.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

F. A. CAMPBELL.

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