CO129-492 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1925 [12] - 1926 [1-5] — Page 523

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unable or umilling to provide the necessary funds, to

Canton

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504

lend the sum required to link up the Kowloon Railway with the trunk line to Hankow (it was then estimated at £40,000) *on adequate security, as in the case of the Wuchang Loan".

Sir Edward Grey at the same time instructed Mr. W.G. Mær Miller, His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking to afford the Hong Kong Goverment all the support

in his power in connection with this project.

3.

In a confidential despatch, dated the

19th November,1912, Sir F.H.May, who succeeded Sir F.D. Lugard as Governor of Hong Kong, wrote of "the vital importance to this Colony and to the interest of British trade that the proposed railway between Hankow and Canton should be connected with the Canton Kowloon Railway", and suggested that "no opportunity should be lost of extracting from the Chinese Government « binding agreement to make the connection". Sir J.N.Jordan in his despatch

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In 1049/15 No. 59 of the 5th February,1913, to Sir Edward Grey wrote:-

"I am in full agreement with the views of Sir Henry May as

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to the importance which such a connection has for the Government of Hong Kong and shall certainly neglect no opportunity that occurs of pressing it upon the attention of the Chinese Goverment ". A little later work on the Canton Hankow line actively began: and Sir John Jordan, having taken advantage of this opportunity to impress again on the Minister of Communications, in conversation, the necessity of linking up that line and the Kowloon Canton Railway at Canton, reported in despatch No. 146 of the 10th April,1913:- "The Minister definitely said that the connection must be made as soon as the Government could find the means.

Fo 14295/13

3.

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During the political confusion in China. throughout the ensuing decade, which included also the four years of the Great War. no progress ina made in tha

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