CO129-349 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [10-12] — Page 381

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CONFIDENTIA L

Hongkong.

My Lord,

REC

780

SANDE

REG 7 JAN 09:

Government House,

Hongkong, 5th. December, 1908.

375

I have the honour to acknowledge

Ca

37429

receipt of Your Lordship's confidential despatch of October

23rd. having reference to defects in certain bridges on the

Kowloon Canton Railway.

2.

I regret to learn from this des-

patch that in your Lordship's opinion the course of action

I adopted in appointing a Committee to report to me confi-

dentially on the matter was ill-advised, since it unneces-

sarily discredited the Resident Engineer and that my proper

course would have been to refer the question to the Con-

sulting Engineers since as Your Lordship states "no immed-

iate action was necessary".

3.

In paragraph 2 of my despatch

under reference, I informed Your Lordship that when I di-

rected a cessation of work for a few days on the bridge

most seriously affected, the Chief Resident Engineer had

protested against the delay. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE BARL OF CREWE

&C.,

&&C.

The high embankments which

lead