CO129-373 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 183

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Enclosure in Mr. Max Müller's No. 315 of September 11, 149 1910.

30980 35579

Wai Wu Pu to H.M. Chargé d'Affaires.

Dec 10 00 10

Memorandum of Sept.b.

3 OCT 1910

The Board have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Max Muller's memorandum with reference to the arrangement of a Joint Working Agreement for the British and Chinese sec- tions of the Canton-Kowloon Railway.

The Wai Wu Pu at once wrote to the Board of Comunications and are now in receipt of the following reply:-

The

"The conditions in respect to the British and Chinese section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway are quite different. former section was constructed by Great Britain from its own funds; the latter section was constructed by China from the proceeds of a loan, Moreover the boundaries of the two sections are quite distinct. The only possible arrangement is to nego- tiate a procedure for Joint Working, and the draft of an agree- ment in this sense has already been prepared and sent to Taotai Wei Han for joint consideration between himself and the dele- gate appointed by the Government of Hongkong. In addition, we forward herewith a memorandum with a request that your Board will forward it to His Majesty's Minister in Peking".

The contents of this memorandum are as follows:- "There are countless objections to joint management (of the two sections) and the Board of Communications have repeated-

ly issued instructions to the General Manager, Mr. Wei Fan, to make representations to this effect to the delegate of the Hongkong Government. Provided suitable arrangements are made with regard to through traffic on the British and Chinese sec-

tions, the expansion of trade will in no way be arrested. The

question of the detriment, or the reverse, of the general pros-

perity of the country through which the line runs is not solely

Smile dependent on joint management, but on other conditions; this

question, moreover, ie one for which the responsibility proper-

ly lies with the management of the railway,

ed

and a remdgy for

the conditions therefore should be found as they arise in each

place