CO129-457 - Public Offices - 1919 — Page 561

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Samuel & Co, the only British firm in Formosa doing general import business of the possibility of the Goverment requiring electric cranes for Takow so that forthcoming orders may not be relinquished to Germany or America without a struggle. I would also venture to suggest that H.M. Commercial Secretary might perhaps mention the matter to British engineering firms in Japan. Nor is this the only matter that

merits the attention of these firms. The semi-

official Formosan Hydro-Electric Company with its huge capital of Y en 60,000,000 will require very large and costly supplies of electrical machinery

and I propose in due course to address to you a

separate despatch dealing with an incident which has

already arisen in this connection.

I have already mentioned the breakwater which

is being built out to the south of the harbour

entrance. To have built such a break-water on the

the ordinary plan in a zone so subject to typhoons

and on the shifting sandy bottom which exists off

Takow, would have been an exceedingly expensive matter and, as already explained, finance is an important con- sideration with the e gineers. Mr. Yamagata, therefore, evolved an idea which, he assures me, is original.

His plan is to build a breakwater of separate concrete

caissons, each of which is 80 feet long by 40 feet

broad by 50 feet deep and weighs 8,000 tons. These caissons will be sunk in the sand of the sea bed and, being without fixed foundations, will sway with the

force of the sea. I gather, however, that it is

calculated that the dead weight of 8,000 tons will

be