CO129-350 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 242

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and utterly inconsistent with the position of the Resident

Engineer or of the Colonial Government whose servant he is.

Those being in our opinion the facts of the case,

we feel it incumbent upon us to most respectfully request

that the imputation that we are financially responsible for

bridges under construction in China may be formally withdrawn.

Apart from what we have said in relation to our position as

defined by our letter of January 25th 1906 it is manifestly

impossible that we should hold ourselves even professionally

responsible for technical work designed and executed by the

Government's own servant without any reference to us, on

foundations situated from four to five thousand miles away

from this office.

Further, we must point out that under any cireum-

stances Engineers whether Executive or Consulting acting

bona fide, do not inour any financial responsibility for any

failure of the works which they have to the best of their

In the

ability and with due care designed and superintended.

question now before us this latter question does not arise

as between the Government and ourselves, seeing that we neither

designed or executed or were consulted on the masonry or

foundations which have shown signs of weakness; but we think

it necessary to lay down what is we believe universally

7.