CO129-520-7 Public Utility companies- acquisition by foreign groups 4-12-1929 - 26-1-1930 — Page 22

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raising this alarm, I should have thought that

were not connected with defence, but the real grounds for apprehension, would be that

orders for machinery and equipment needed in

future would go to American firms rather than

British. Sir William Peel seems to take a less

apprehensive view than his predecessor and would

attach probably less importance than Sir C. Clementi of assuring

necd

to the desirability of continuing British control

of e.g. the China Light and Power Company. With

regard to that Company, he says that it holds no

monopoly and has no powers by legislation or

regulations. So long as in fact it received no

preferential treatment or protection from the

Government, it might have seemed hardly fair to

impose a new and important restriction on those

who control it, but/SeNo.1 in the attached file

72850 the Company has been assisted at Government

expense to buy a large plot of land in Kowloon for

the extension of its service to the New Territories.

We have heard no more of the designs of the

American syndicate in the meantime, but if one

was to be particularly suspicious it might be

apprehended that the syndicate has been waiting

for this development to take place knowing, as

they would, that the assistance which the Company

has received in extending its service to the New

Territories might not have been forthcoming so

readily after the transfer of the Company to

American control. The Governor turns down our

suggestion that the occasion might be utilised for

the obtaining of a guarantee of British control in consideration of the concession in Kowloon Having

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regard to the legal position-(which I interpret as

meaning the lack of any legal position) The