CO129-366 - Governor Sir Lugard Acting Governor May - 1910 [4-5] — Page 58

t

<

56

takes exception I would ask for intimation thereof by

telegraph. Pending receipt of Your Lordship's telegram I

do not propose that the actual draft of the Working Agree-

-ment shall be placed in the hands of the Chinese delegate,

if it can be avoided.

4.

As regards the form of the Agree-

-ment, Your Lordship will observe that we have endeavoured

to exclude from it everything which is not concerned with

general principles, and to include all details in a

supplementary "Code of Procedure" based upon similar Codes

in India and elsewhere. There are a few points in the

draft Agreement which call for special comment. The first

is the principle which underlies the whole Agreement, viz.:-

the joint-management under a Board of Control and a

General Manager. This is the system stipulated in Article

18

of the Loan Agreement and it is the system approved in

Your Lordship's Despatches referred to above. It is more-

-over beyond doubt the most economical-and the most

efficient method of working the Railway: and I think if

the Chinese Authorities accept Articles 4, 5 and 6, as

drafted, sound administration of the undertaking will be

assured. I am also of opinion that the proposed arrange-

-ment is an eminently fair one; for, while the Chairman

of