CO129-564-11 Road communications with Canton. Includes 1 photograph depicting- Bridge over Shum Chun River- China. Dated... 20-8-1937 - 18-1-1938 — Page 9

9

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The fronter is on the

rums on the

N. bank of the stream.

t be not less than 100 yards long. The

Chinese frontier village is Sham Chun, and the

previous attitude of the Hong Kong Government

has been that if the Chinese will construct a

suitable road to somewhere near Sham Chun, the

connection with our own road system would be

comparatively easy. For military reasons we

have preferred that any such road connection

should cross the river at the frontier by

the existing railway bridge at 3ham Chun.

That seems to me still a sensible attitude,

although the Hong Kong Government have now,

in view of the exposure of the railway to

greater interruption, come to regard it as of more

interest to the Colony's trade and food supply

that the alternative channel of a road should

be constructed without delay.

according to our information, ie actually on

the British side of the frontier, so should

be free from Japanese attacks; the immediate

approaches on the Chinese side would, however,

be a legitimate target. It would, to my mind,

be absurd for us to decide now at this juncture

to complete a main road up to and across the

railway bridge while there would be no

similarly constructed road running northwards

from the Chinese frontier. We have asked the

Hong Kong Government for certain information

in No. 7, and this seems essential before we

can either consider the very real difficulty

in present circumstances about cost, or

ascertain the War Office view from the point

of view of defence.

The bridge,

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question of a

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As regards the general admonition

from