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A
Glimpse At Kowloon-Canton Railway's History
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During
the international scramble for foreign concessions in China during
1897-8 the British and Chinese Corporation (a company jointly controlled
by Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank)
conducted negotiations with SHENG Hsuan-huai ( 盛宣懷 ) who was then China’s recently appointed Director-General
of the Imperial Railway Administration (鐵路總公司). On 13th May 1898 the
British & Chinese Corporation secured a preliminary agreement
for the building of a line from Canton to Kowloon. |
The British Government was at this time aggrieved by China’s granting of a Belgian concession for the construction of the important Peking-Hankow (Beijing-Hankou [Wuhan]) railway. The British considered that Belgian moves of this nature were in reality a cover for French territorial ambitions and this new line would extend French influence into the Yangtze River basin, which the British regarded as their area of influence. The British reaction was to order the British Minister to China, Sir Claude MacDonald, to apply the strongest possible pressure to the Chinese Government for a compensatory agreement for five railway concessions. Included in these was a concession for the building of the Canton to Kowloon line. This preliminary agreement for such a railway was also restated by means of the inclusion of a special additional clause to the 9th June 1898 Convention between Great Britain and China. This was the convention which granted to Hong Kong the 99 year lease of the “New Territory” as it was then called. The clause, however, in order to not to inflame sensitivities was diplomatically worded to refer only to the construction of the line within British territory, thereby suggesting that China would herself build the remainder of line from Canton to the British border, a feat that China was technically incapable of carrying out at that time. Yet a further agreement reinforcing the plan for this railway was signed on 28th March 1899 by Director-General Sheng on behalf the Chinese Government and Jardine Matheson on behalf the British and Chinese Corporation.
In
spite of Britain’s political urgency for the line to be constructed, very
little was achieved during the following few years. There was much local
opposition in Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province to the idea of foreigners
building the railway. Funding had become a major problem for the British
& Chinese Corporation following the Boxer rebellion and also because
of Britain’s preoccupation with the Boer War in South Africa. It was not
until 1903 that serious negotiations were restarted.
The British Government again pushed the issue, concerned about
growing French involvement in southern China and the potential threat
to Hong Kong’s premier trading port status. The British particularly feared
that the, as yet, uncompleted Hankow to Canton (Hankou -Guangzhou) railway
line, which had initially been granted by China to an American syndicate,
would end up in Belgian/French hands. Indeed the Americans had already
started selling shares in the railway company to the Belgians. If the
Belgian/French capitalists succeeded in gaining control of this line they
would control the whole of the Peking (Beijing) to south China trunk line,
and it would then be easy for the French to open another port on the south
China coast where the railway would terminate. This would be devastating
to Hong Kong’s interests and had to be stopped at all costs by the British.
The British Government pressured the British & Chinese Corporation (which still nominally held the concession) into action. The Chinese side, however, continued to procrastinate about construction of the line because of the proposed foreign construction and control of the line. The final solution came about by agreeing to divide the line into two sections: The British section (KCR) from Kowloon to the border at Lo-wu being financed and undertaken by the Hong Kong Government and the Chinese section (CKR) continuing from the border town Shum-Chun (Shenzhen) to Canton (Guangzhou). The latter was to be financed and constructed by the British & Chinese Corporation but upon completion was to be operated by the Chinese Provincial Government with British managers giving guidance.
[The political Origins] [Construction] [Opening and Subsequent Operations]
