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Hongkong Government, and when their representative saw the Colonial Secretary on the subject he was informed that the Hongkong Government were then in communication with the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the British Minister at Peking, and pending a reply the Government was not prepared to recognize the Company's right to erect any telegraph lines on Crown land.
Later on, however, the Company was informed that if they would apply to be allowed to extend their section of the line to the new frontier, the Hongkong Government would be prepared to negotiate a lease of
3 wires on their railway poles, but would not allow the Company to construct their own line along the railway track or elsewhere. Further, that with the continuance of the present working conditions, the lease would probably cover the full term of the Company's Agreement with the Administration, but would be terminable in the event of the Government ever themselves taking over the working of the local Chinese office, which they desired but found was debarred at present by the Home Government having assented to the agreement with the Administration. Moreover, that a charge would be based on the capital expenditure of the leased wires, plus a moderate tax, with provision for additional wires when required.
My Board of Directors were naturally surprised at this change of attitude on the part of the Hongkong Government, seeing that the 1884 Agreement clearly establishes the Company'sright to own and maintain a landline through the British territory of Kowloon for the transmission of the Administration's Canton-Hongkong traffic, and that it had been acknowledged by the
(Hongkong
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