CO129-385 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 63

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62

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"Administrations of the Railway", which Clause 4 and is defined in Clauses 1 and 2. throughout the text it is intended to denote the actual management of each section as opposed to the two Governments, and in several places powers have been entrusted to the two Administrations to act without reference to their respective Goverments, I hope in this way that in course of time a practical method of joint working may grow up. I may add that Mr. Chao wrote on the 7th ultimo that he had received a telegram from the Railway Department of the Board of Communications in the following terms:-- "As regards the words 'the Railway Department of the Board of Cormamications has agreed to construct as soon as possible a connection of the Canton-Kowloon Railway with the Canton-Hankow Railway', this Board has already considered the matter which need not therefore occasion the British Government any anxiety. The junction with the Canton- Hankow line can be separately discussed when the working arrange- ments for the Canton-Kowloon line have been satisfactorily made".

8. I Clause 32. The original clause as first printed in A after having boon agreed to and initialled by ír. Chao was objected to by him on the ground that it might prove disadvan tageous to the Chinese section: ami, although I felt that the original draft contained the simplest and most convenient method of dealing with the difficulties presented by the currency problem, and although the chaotic state of Chinese currency may be said to be the fault of China - a fault from which this Colony suffers great loss I did not demur to the clause being re-drafted which appears in the final copy B in a manner which safeguarded the interests of the Chineso, not less than of the British Section.

9. Clause 37 with the Schedule D. It was originally intended that the Customs Agreement regarding which I wrote to you on the 28th of June, 1911, should be negotiated simultaneously with this Agreement, and the schedule is in fact extracted from that proposed agreement. Nogotiations in that matter have, however,

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