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China's
Present
and
prospective
Railways
1899
LI WW'
• WEAVt OF SAILVi/*^ - CO^aiAIG*
MiiSSH-t^iC^C*.. ■> z
China's Present and Prospective
Railways
by
Clarence Gary
New York, January, 1899
LIBMAN •
•imcAU OF BAILWAY sCONOtMC».
V»ASHmCTOS, 0. C"
APR 5- 1917
COPYRIGHTED BY CLARENCE CARY, 1899
Vit
.û-ZsS
CHINA'S PEESBNT AND PEOSPEOTIVE
EAILWAYS.
The Middle Kingdom, with an area of some 1,700,000
square miles, and a population generally reckoned at not far
from 400,000,000, is, at the present time, supplied by only
340 miles of railway. The United States, having about
70,000,000 inhabitants and an area of 3,602,000 square miles,
finds use for 236,911 miles of railroad, while Japan, China's
near Asiatic neighbor, which but as yesterday emerged
int<) the light and needs of Western civilization, has already
developed nearly 3,000 miles of line to serve a people num¬
bering not more than 42,000,000, occupying the relatively
small space of 162,655 square miles.
Thus, it will be seen that China's railway facilities,
whether considered relatively, or in point of mileage, are as
yet but scant, and that there still remains ample room within
the Empire for additional railway construction.
So much by way of contrast and comparison. Consider
now the extent of the territory thus far so insufficiently
supplied with methods of modern transportation; remember¬
ing meanwhile, that it abounds in mineral wealth, has a
fine and generally temperate climate, and is thronged with
a population as frugal, hardy, and industrious as the world
affords.
The essential features of China's geography may be
more minutely observed by aid of the accompanying
map, but, in attaining an off-hand grasp of the same, it will
be convenient to note that the general aspect of the part of
Asia here concerned, as it lies along the Pacific, is not
wholly unlike the Atlantic side of the North American con-
4
tinent, and in area is about equivalent to that part of the
United States lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains.
Thus, it will appear, hy rough approximation, and with
general reference to the respective parallels or meridians of
latitude and longitude, that Peking about corresponds in its
position with Philadelphia, that Shanghai may be likened
to Savannah, Canton (near the British Colony of Hong-
Kong) to a point in the Gulf of Mexico about 400 miles
south of New Orleans, and that Hankau is relatively the
equivalent of some farther inland American place like Mem¬
phis.
Following this analogy, Nantucket, with us, may indi¬
cate about where Niu-chwang should be found on China's
map, while further to the eastward, as Halifax would
be if it were less than half its present distance north
of Philadelphia, the Russian port of Vladivostock should
appear.
The more important recent Russian acquisitions. Port
Arthur and Talienwan, together with the new British
port of Wei-hai-wei, which have figured so prominently of
late in world-wide discussion, will readily be found grouped
about the Gulf of Pechili, or, as it might be with us, near the
mouth of Delaware Bay ; the recent German acquisition of
Kiao Chou Bay lying not far off on the southern side of the
Shantung Peninsula, but little more than three hundred
miles south and east of Peking.
Avoiding the difficult effort to fit climatic conditions to
the geographical analogies here essayed, it still should be
remarked that the isothermal lines to which Americans are
accustomed would need to be bent much further to the
south if prolonged around the globe as far as China.
Thus, at Shanghai, with hotter summers, the winter season
is about what New York endures, although with much less
5
snow-fall, while Peking and the north of China have far
lower winter temperatures. The upper regions of Manchuria^
indeed, are almost arctic in their winter phase, while Tient¬
sin and Taku, the sea-port inlets of Peking, together with
the various hays in the northern Bight of the Gulf of Pechili,
are frozen up, and generally inaccessible by sea, from Decem¬
ber to March. Port Arthur, however, and Talienwan, as well
as Wei-hai-wei, are ice-free winter harbors.
So much for our considerably forced comparison. In re¬
spect of water courses it is unquestionably lame, for the
greater streams of Cliina, such as the Yaugtsze Klang and
the Hoang-Ho, which latter is commonly known as the Yel¬
low River, or as "China's Sorrow," unlike the larger rivers
of the North American continent, trend generally to the
eastward, instead of to the south.
Taking the Mississippi, which may best serve by way of
offset to the Yangtsze, one must to get the proper illus¬
tration imagine it debouching near Savannah. In such a
case the important cities of Shanghai, Nanking, Ching-kiang,
etc., may be figured as grouped together not far from its
mouth, while Haukau, a great distributing centre of China's
tea and silk trade, and as well the highest point of deep-
draught steamer navigation of the Yangtsze, would lie as
far inland as is Memphis with us, or some 700 miles back
from the sea.
Returning now to the existing or prospective Chinese
railways, with whatever slight aidin considering their various
geographical points the foregoing analogies may afford, it
may be well to first glance at their genesis, before dealing
with their existing and still initial stage of evolution.
That railroad projects have not here greatly figured
in history, or in fact, will not excite surprise, granting
the extraordinarily fixed and resistant nature of Chinese
6
institutions. Perhaps the first suggestion of official foreign
contact with them, or with their possibilities, is to be found
in Article VIII of sundry additional clauses to what is
known as the Tientsin Treaty of June 18, 1855, which
were executed November 23, 1869, between the represent¬
atives of the United States and those of the Ta-Tsing Em¬
pire, or "Bright Pure Dynasty," as the present government
of China is officially designated.
In this treaty, made, it will be observed, as much as
thirty years ago, it was agreed that the United States should
"designate and authorize suitable engineers to he employed
by the Chinese Government" under proper conditions of
protection and remuneration by the latter, in the event that
the natives might desire to indulge in railroad operations.
While the precise significance of this clause in a treaty of the
time is now not clear, its presence indicates that, even at a
relatively early period, some active American imaginations
were busy over what were then, and still remain, the allur¬
ing possibilities of railway development in China.
That ideas as to railways were also germinating in the
native mind, is apparent from the interesting pages of the
quaint official record of the affairs of the Celestial King¬
dom, known as the Peking Gazette.
Here, about 1881, appeared a serious appeal to the
Throne,* from Liu-Ming Chuan, one of China's few pro¬
gressive Mandarins of his time, who, following a still more
interesting memorial of Tso-tung-t'ang, framed in like vein,
and, after the fashion of Chinese memorialists, "Looking
upward from bended knees and imploring the sacred glances "
(of their Majesties) on his "humble petition," nevertheless
proceeded to offer singularly blunt and effective reasons for
* Quoted in extenso in Gen. Wm. H. "Wilson's work "Travels in the
Middle Kingdom "—p. 127, et. seq.
7
the introduction of railways, as practically the only hope
for the regeneration and self-protection of China. Liu-
Ming Chuan seems to have heen inspired by the famous
Viceroy Li Hung Chang, whose own petition for the intro¬
duction of a telegraph line had recently heen received with
Imperial favor, but the earlier utterances of Tso-tung fang
were no less outspoken, and had all the greater effect, as
coming from what proved to be the death bed of that un¬
happy memorialist.
In each of these cases, the appeal thus formulated, sought
to stir China's stolid conservatism into some recognition of
the military and political benefits which might be derived from
at least a partial recognition and adoption of the ways of the
Outside Barbarian in respect of railroad development, but in
what was then the backward stage of evolution of the Empire,
such early seed was necessarily sown on sterile ground.
The memorialists here concerned were both too rudiment¬
ary in statement, and too prolix of argument, to allow further
quotation, but their petitions, and the ensuing comment
of Li Hung Chang, are well worth the attention of those
who have time and inclination for curious investigation in
this field, as is no less, the later utterance of a certain
Censor who likewise memorialized the Throne.* This
confirmed reactionary protested against the regretable
concessions made, or about to be made to the Western
Barbarians at the risk of troubling the repose of China's
dead, and suggested that, rather than construct rail¬
ways, it would be better to reward those who might redis¬
cover the ancient art of the flying cars which were drawn
by phoenixes.
So, too, the member of the Tsung-li-yamen, cited hy
* Quoted by M. Pierre Leroy Beaulien in Le Problème Chinois, Revue
des Deux Mondes.^ Nov. 15,1898, p. 338.
8
the same writer, had equally interesting views, for he, it
appears, rose to protest against the earth-disturbance of
railways, or more concretely, against the spikes of the same,
which, when driven into the ground, might wound the sacred
sub-terrestrial dragons whose duty it is to protect the cities.
So much for the more fantastic native points of
view.
To return to actualities in the way of Chinese rail¬
way affairs, we ñrst encounter a short line of some four¬
teen miles, opened in 1876 between Shanghai and its
deep-water, or below-bar port of Woosung. After a brief
existence, of but little more than a year, which even under
adverse conditions of local superstition and native official
protest gave ample promise of success for its British pro¬
moters, this tentative line was presently bought up by the local
authorities and summarily removed.
That an unfortunate first step of this kind was destined
to be followed, twenty years later, by the creation of the
railway since constructed between the same termini, and that
the project in its regenerated form has, on its recent opening,
been received with the unqualified approval and acclaim of
the native population, is a significant fact.
A beginning of railway development is here, as else¬
where, visible within the Empire, which demonstrates that
some of the light of Western progress may penetrate the fog
of conservatism heretofore persistently obstructing all such
innovations.
The Woosung-Shanghai line, however, need not be
reckoned as the only effective result thus far shown. Thanks
to the untiring efforts of Mr. G. E. Kinder, an English en¬
gineer who, for the last twenty years, has labored under many
discouragements and against manifold obstacles in the field
of China's development, the Taku, Tientsin, Shan-hai-kuan
9
section of the Imperial Chinese Railway system has likewise
been perfected. Begun, in-a furtive manner in 1881, as a
mere tramway of a few miles in length, to serve the Kaiping
coal mines near Tong-Shan,.this equally modest venture has
been gradually prolonged, both north and south of that
point, until it reaches Tientsin, and Taku on the one hand,
and Shan-hai-kuan on the other.
A continuation of this road is partially graded north of
Shan-hai-kuan, and it is this unfinished section, together
with a further projected extension to Niu-chwang, which has
of late so prominently figured in British and Russian con¬
troversy.
We shall have occasion to revert to this subject presently;
it may for the moment, suffice to observe that another, more
important extension of the general Chinese Imperial Railway
system, has also been recently completed, under Mr. Kinder's
capable direction, from Tientsin to Machiapu—a point about
two miles from the Tatar part of the City of Peking—whence
a short electric railway connection, extending to one of
the principal gates of the Chinese capital, is already con¬
structed.
The Tientsin-Peking branch of the main railway affords-
an illustration, if not indeed a conclusive proof, that profit¬
able results may certainly be obtained by any judiciously
planned railway in the Chinese Empire. From the earliest
days of its opening during the past year, this road has been
constantly overburdened with freight and passenger traffic,
and is believed to have reaped ample profit. As con¬
necting the capital City of Peking with its important sea¬
port of Tientsin, the line should long enjoy like and increas¬
ing advantages.
Another, scarcely less important, section of the Im¬
perial railway is found in a line, of about 80 miles in
10
length, extending from Lu-Kou-Chiao (or Lu-Kou Bridge)
near Peking, southward to Pao-ting-fu, the capital of the
Province of Chihili. This latest venture, which, for the mo¬
ment, completes the present achievement of the Govern¬
ment System, has been under active constructon for some¬
what more than a year past, and is now in partial operation
to a point near Chocho, a little north of Pao-ting-fu. Whether
as prospectively a part of the Hankau-Peking, or "Lu-Han"
railway—to be presently described—or because of certain
lien-rights therein, supposed to be possessed by the Eusso-
Chinese Bank, this section is of particular interest, for the
Bank here mentioned is an important politico-financial insti¬
tution through which Russia operates in China, and the funds
for building not only this line, but a projected extension of
the same further south to Cheng-ting-fu, are believed to have
been advanced by it.
That such a possibility could exist, has been the cause
of much British anxiety and protest, and in this quarter it
is confidently believed, that, behind what here purports to
be merely a native railway operation, will sooner or later
appear an aggressive Muscovite hand, grasping at the sacred
British reservation of the Yangtsze region.
So, too, it is suspected that certain projected Belgian rail¬
way operations in respect of a connecting road from Hankau
on the Yangtsze Eiver, northward to Pao-ting-fu, likewise dis¬
guises secret Russian intent.' British apprehension is still
excited on both of these points, but has been recently diverted
to that more acute stage of the perennial Anglo-Russian fric¬
tion, which normally exists in North China. What is there
the subject of immediate dispute, is a proposed extension
of the Imperial Chinese railway from Shan-hai-kuan, some
260 miles northward to Niu-chwang, a project to which we
have before referred and must presently return.
11
As already indicated, the existing Imperial Chinese sys¬
tem consists, thus far, of not more than about 340 miles of
railway now in operation, viz.: the lines from Tientsin to
Shan-hai-kuan, via Tangku, and from Tientsin to Machia-pu,
near one of the gates of Peking, together with the Woosung-
Shanghai road, and a small affair of about 20 miles in length
which serves the Tien-shan-pu coal mines on the upper
Yangtsze River.
To these initial railways, however, must presently he
added the road already mentioned, of about eighty miles
in length, now under construction from Lu-Kou-Chiao
(Bridge) near Peking, southwardly to Pao-ting-fu, with
later, the projected extension from Shan-hai-kuan north¬
wardly to Niu-chwang, and perhaps the more ambitious pro¬
ject generally known as the Lu-Han Line, if matters improve
for the Belgian contractors who now are fumbling with this
latter enterprise.
Next in order, should be the undertaking of the Amer¬
ican China Development Company, with the construction
of the Hankau-Canton railroad, and there are various minor
schemes of like nature, chiefly as additions to the Imperial
System, to follow.
The Lu-Han road, if completed, will result in an im¬
portant trunk-line of about six hundred and fifty miles in
length, extending from the prominent interior Treaty Port
of Hankau—the highest point of deep-draught navigation
of the Yangtsze Kiang—northwardly to Pao-ting-fu, where
it will join, and later absorb, the partially completed sec¬
tion, reaching thence north to Lu-kou-chiao, near Peking,
which has already been described.
It is worth remark that this, the Lu-kou-chiao—Hankau
railway, takes its more familiar or sub-title of "Lu-Han",
from what appears to be a Chinese custom of linking together
12
parts of the names of the termini of a proposed route, and is
thus generally designated in local reports and press dis¬
patches, although also popularly hnown as the "Belgian
Concession ".*
This important project, which was at first the object
of much futile native undertaking, was later, for a consider¬
able period, the subject of active negotiation between the
Chinese ofBcials and an American group which had been
invited to undertake its construction, and, as well to pro¬
vide a loan of the necessary funds for this purpose. Wlien,
however, the representatives of the American Company
visited China in the winter of 1896-97, in response to
native invitation, and for the purpose of consummating a
supposed contract for the road, they soon found that the
concession thus offered to them was of little or no com¬
mercial avail.
His Excellency, Shêng Hsiian-huai, or, as he is more
commonly styled, Shêng Tajen, the Chinese ofiicial who,
as Director-General of the Imperial Chinese Eailway Ad¬
ministration, acted for the Imperial Government in these
negotiations, able, astute and progressive as he is, had not
then sufficient experience in western railway requirements
to make the business as he sought to shape it, a possibility
of the time.
After securing a survey of the line thus proposed,
under the direction of Captain Watson W. Eich, an
experienced American engineer who has since obtained
the important post of Chief Engineering Adviser of the Im¬
perial Chinese Eailway Administration of the South, the
* Following the analogy of the Lu-Han line, the Hankau-Canton railway
appears to already have an abbreviated title, and to be known to the Chinese as
the " Yueh-Han " line; Yueh beingthe "literary name" of Canton, and gen¬
erally indicating the Canton District, while the "Han," of course, as in the
former case, is derived from Hankau.
13
American party finally declined the proposed contract, pre¬
ferring to wait for further developments and for the more
promising opportunities which seemed probable, and, indeed,
have since arisen.
That the Lu-Han contract thus rejected by the Amer¬
icans, was presently thereafter snapped-up by a less prudent
Belgian group or Syndicate, is well known, as also that the
latter have experienced many unhappy moments over their
undertaking, with which indeed they are still struggling.
In a previous article, on this general subject, the writer
ventured to predict that tlie adventurous Belgians would
here inevitably stumble, if not wholly fall by the wayside,
in the effort to carry out a wholly inadequate contract.
Subsequent events have thus far justified this forecast, and
demonstrated their undertaking to have been fruitful of
vexation and delay, both to themselves and to the Chinese,
as also, thus far, without material result in the way of rail¬
road construction. This, notwithstanding sundry radical
changes of contract, since obtained under the amended Chino-
Belgian agreement of June 26,1898.*
In the various negotiations of 1896-97, here under con¬
sideration, the Chinese officiais deemed it expedient to limit
their dealings to those of the various foreign nationals who,
like Belgians or Americans, might reasonably be supposed to
have no schemes of territorial grab or aggrandizement hid¬
den up tlieir sleeves. China has since then, however, been
* The Belgiauft, after repeated default in their stipulated loans, have now
obtained substantial amendments under an instrument known as the Shang¬
hai agreement of June 26, 1898, executed between the Chinese General Rafl-
way Company and M. Hubert, the representative of the Syndicat Belffe.
In this contract, provision is ina<le for a loan to the native Company, of
112,500,000 franca, or £4.500,000, to be styled " the 5 per cent. Chinese Kaiíway
Loan of 1898 The fact that the Kusso-Chinese Bank here figures with some
prominence, has given rise to much of the British suspicion above referred to,
a feeling not allayed by suggestion of the appointment of the French Minister,
Russia's present strongest ally at Peking, as final arbiter in disputes with the
natives. It is of interest to note that the American Company possesses rever¬
sionary rights in the contract of the Belgians, in the event of' failure on the part
of the latter.
14
forced into granting many railway and other concessions,
whether to Russians, French or Germans, and it is perhaps
a necessary consequence of these conditions that she seems
to be now more open-lianded in like transactions with the
British.
Leaving the Belgians, for the present, to their arduous
undertaking, we pass in proper sequence to the American
project, and to what seems destined to become another chief
north-and-south trunk-line of the future railway system of
China.
This is a proposed road from Wu-chang, on the south
hank of the Yangtsze opposite Hankau, extending south¬
ward to Canton, via the chief intervening provincial capitals?
with various cross lines or branches, and a. possible extension
from Canton to the vicinity of Hong-Kong.
The contract affecting this considerable railway, includ¬
ing a promise of sundry mining rights and other collateral
privileges, has recently been granted to the American China
Development Company,* already mentioned, a corporation
which is promoted by a syndicate of prominent American
capitalists, whose business character, experience and financial
standing, are such as to reasonably ensure the carrying out
of whatever project they may finally undertake.
The Hankau-Canton franchise, thus concerned, has long
been an object of solicitous consideration on the part of
concession seekers of all nationalities, for here may readily
be discerned a possible railway of the future, which, with
branch lines traversing and amply serving the southern
half of China, would not only create and control a great
traffic, but as well dominate whatever minor railways there
might be established in its vicinity.
* Under an agreement executed April 14, 18^)8, after due Imperial sanc¬
tion, by His Excellency Wii-ting-fang, the present Chinese Minister at
Washington, with Mr. A. W. Bash, the agent or the American Company.
15
That the contract for the same has now been readily
granted to the American Company is due not only to the fact
that, in the course of its negotiations in China during tlie
past three years, the latter has gained the confidence of the
native ofiScials. but, as well, because the rapidly increasing
political complications with which the Empire has lately
been affected, have convinced the Imperial Government of
the need of railways for its preservation. We have already
seen that, in dealing with Americans the Chinese deem
themselves free from menace of territorial aggression, and, in
this instance, what was particularly sought to be gained by
them is the barrier an American railway undertaking in the
southern provinces will afford against aggressions of the
French from the South.
A glance at the accompanying map of China will demon¬
strate that the proposed Hankau-Canton road must cross or
reach the fertile, well-developed and densely populated prov¬
inces of Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, Kwangsi and Kwangtung,
and that, incidentally, it may likewise serve their various
provincial capitals with suitable cross-lines for tributary
traffic, as also develop the valuable deposits of coal and other
minerals which some of these provinces are known to afford.
It is apparent that a considerable local traffic must await
this railway, in addition to an important through-business,
necessarily susceptible of development between such consid¬
erable southern sea-coast points as Canton, or its near neighbor
Hong-Kong, and the great, central distributing river-port of
Hankau, especially where the area, climatic conditions and
population here concerned are kept in view. At, and between,
the principal termini are to be found a hardy, industrious,
frugal people, estimated at over a hundred million in number,
while in two alone of the provinces to be served by the line.
16
the inhabitants nearly equal those of the entire United
States.
The chief products of these regions consist of tea, silk, cot¬
ton, opium, rice, millet and other cereals, leaving to be later
reckoned into account, such as may be derived from the exten¬
sive mineral deposits which are as yet comparatively un¬
touched. As between the present long, round-about and
uncertain sea-and-river route between Canton, or Hong-Kong
and Hankau, the paramount advantages of a direct railway
will be obvious. Thus far the great expanse of territory, and
the mass of population, here concerned have been wholly de¬
prived of the benefit of modern transportation facilities, and
although the country to be traversed is already under high cul¬
tivation, only such primitive aids or methods of transport as
have obtained for thousands of years past are to be found.
That this, or, indeed any section of China, when first
opened by a railway, may possibly afford but small surplus
production for freight shipments to outside points, and, as
well, may possess but slight available margin of accumulated
capital with which to create any great inward-flow of busi¬
ness, is probably the fact. Yet here, as in any cultivated and
populous country elsewhere, a railway must work its cus¬
tomary miracles. The funds disbursed in the course of con¬
struction will, alone, relatively enrich the local laboring folk,
andinevitably create—contemporaneously perhaps, with some
slight rise in the price of labor—the local demand for more
extensive supplies, to be derived from outside sources, which
must ever afterwards exist and can be later met through
the results of an increased and constantly stimulated local
production.
In any event, as already remarked, an extensive
through-traffic already awaits whatever railway may connect
the southern sea-coast, near Canton, or Hong-Kong, with the
17
heart of the Empire at Hankau, for such a line must neces¬
sarily serve the chief cotton and rice areas of the Empire, and
as well reach the centre of its silk and tea trade, aside from
whatever local freight, or other business, there may he derived
through a collateral coal, and other mineral development.
Whether the Belgian scheme, which has been already
discussed, will provide a suitable railway connection for
the American line from Hankau north, via Pao-ting-fu
to Peking, and so on to the northeast, over the Tientsin,
Shan-hai-kuan Eailway, or whether such a northern outlet
may have to be attained from Hankau, via the Yangtsze
Eiver to Chinkiang, and thence over the projected Anglo-
German road to Tientsin, which is hereafter mentioned, the
fact remains, that a chief back-bone section of the route of
that great north-and-south-bound traffic of the future, which
is destined to pass between the southern sea-coast on the
one hand, and the northern provinces and ports on the other,
must inevitably be found in the Hankau-Canton line.
In the further northern regions, such a line should also,
later, enjoy as an additional outlet, and as a source of ex¬
tensive traffic-exchange, the all-rail connection to be pres¬
ently afforded, at or near Niu-chwang, by the Trans-
Manchurian branch of the great Trans-Siberian Eailway.
Here, is necessarily a future rail connection, destined to
open the wide areas of northern Asia and as well to reach to
the far off sea-coasts of Europe. And it is within the proba-
blities, that, before many years have elapsed, a further
connection with another great railway system will be af¬
forded at Canton, for at, or near this latter point must
sooner or later be found the eastern terminus of a southern
line, designed to meet the Burmese and Indian railways.
As already remarked, the Chinese are a most frugal, in¬
dustrious and temperate people ; it is well known also, that
18
they are eager traders and travelers, readily adapting them¬
selves to, and prospering nnder any conditions of climate or
environment, while always prompt to adventure their goods
and persons within whatever outside openings or markets
their circumstances may afford.
Thus, as seen in the results of the recently opened Tient¬
sin-Peking line, any properly planned railway in China,
may, from the first, be reasonably sure of ample support
through native passengers and freight shipments, and it has
long been observed, in the steamer service of the Yangtsze
Eiver and along the coasts, that the natives are alike active
travelers and shippers.
Mr. Colquhoun, in his recent instructive work "China
in Transformation," has truly remarked that the Chinese
are far more likely to contribute to, and to support a
railroad, than were the natives of India, among whom,
as he further demonstrates, the development of railways,
whether in respect of passenger trafidc, or of those still more
important features which concern the stimulation and growth
of national production, has been so eminently successful.*
In the consideration of any China railway project it
should be remembered that the Empire still lingers among
the unfortunate nations afflicted with the silver basis, and,
consequently, that such features as traffic charges and pas¬
senger fares, as well as intake generally, must be reckoned
in silver currency. Correspondingly, such per contra items
as payments for purchase of construction material and equip-
* Commissioner Hippisley, of Tientsin, in the " Chinese Trade Reports
for 1897", remarks, apropos of the local railway derelopment, that "It is as¬
tonishing how speedily the Chinese, despite their reputed conservatism, adapt
themselves to a new environment, and make the most of the increased transport
facilities offered them Again, in referring to the extensive business of the
new Tientsin-Peking Railway, he adds, that "trafi&c generally developed so
rapidly that it soon became necessary to doable the line
19
ment, procured from outside sources, and interest charges no
foreign-held bonds, etc., are to he met in gold.
Yet, under even these circumstances, there is effective
compensation, for, in any case, assuming that silver, after
its late disconcerting fluctuations, has at last reached a
somewhat settled, or at least, a temporarily workable basis ;
its relatively unimpaired purchasing power, in the backward
community here concerned, permits an outside gold invest¬
ment to be reckoned at the present time, at nearly double
its apparent value. Thus, for the purpose of meeting many
important items like payments for land, labor, taxes and
other local charges, China, thanks to what is still the pur¬
chasing power of silver, affords a cheap fleld of operation for
outside capital. It is there, still possible to obtain a day's
work of a competent laborer for less than twelve cents in
gold, or say, a quarter of a Mexican silver dollar, and other
necessities of local outlay, are found to he in like pro¬
portion.
The American undertaking of the Hankau-Canton rail¬
way, with its branches and cross lines, is still in the stage of
preliminary physical investigation. An engineering party,
nnder the charge of Mr. William Barclay Parsons of New
York, has recently begun an elaborate survey of the route,
which, it is expected, will require from four to five months
for its completion. At present, it would appear, although
definite information is still beyond our reach, that the pro¬
jected line will encounter no great physical obstacles in the
way of river crossings or mountain ranges, nor any lasting
obstruction arising from unsettled political conditions. The
Yangtsze, at least, unlike its more formidable northern
neighbor the Yellow River, which the Belgian Lu-Han sys¬
tem will have to meet and overcome, may be crossed, at all
seasons, by means of a train-ferry service of an effective kind.
20
This much, at least, it now seems safe to predicate,
in regard to the first serious American enterprise in China,
viz., that, so long as the foreign financial centres or bond
markets remain undisturbed by wars, etc., there is probably
no reason why its important work can not proceed in due
course, to an orderly and complete development, or why,
under these favorable financial conditions, the venture may
not obtain its necessary support and so attain the beneficial
results which its native and foreign projectors have reck¬
oned upon, even allowing for temporarily obstructive
political complications which may possibly arise within the
Empire.
What may be the effect of such a railway upon the future
development of China, and in the domain of international
politics, although attractive subjects for discussion, are yet
beyond the limits of this paper.
The remaining railway projects of the Middle Kingdom,
other than those already averted to, although few in number,
are yet well worthy of consideration.
Taking these in their order, we may first turn to the pro¬
posed line between Tient-sin and Ching-kiang, a scheme of
unquestioned importance and prospective value, which many
foreigners have sought to control. This, with good reason,
for the line here concerned, as following that of the Grand
Canal, is generally level and easy of access for the supply of
water-borne railway building material, and in occupying
a great, north-and-south, trade-route which the natives have
used for centuries past, is reasonably sure, whenever con¬
structed, to command a great and lasting trafile.
There is still a confused clamor of both native and
foreign applicants for this concession. A native company,
largely identified with Mr. Yung-Wing, a well-known Ameri¬
canized Chinese, appears to have obtained from the Tsung-li-
21
Tarnen a preliminary grant of it, but at the same time,
to have run counter to a rival Anglo-German project
which, as actively patronized by the governments of these
strong outside nationalties, seems thus far, likely to gain
the more effective right of way.
In this region lies one of the chief debatable grounds of
the Empire. Already, what, only a year ago, purported to
be merely a tentative German occupation of the adjacent
port of Kiao-chau, has, since with the usual mushroom growth
of such aggressions, so rapidly extended as to embrace a
large "Hinterland", and, as it now appears, any railway
invasion, of other nationalities within, or near the western
borders of the extended Shantung province, is wholly incon¬
sistent with Teutonic views. But, although these conditions
obtain, and there are various exclusively German railway
lines projected throughout Shantung, it still seems that, in
respect of the Tientsin-Ching-kiang line, the Germans have
found it expedient to compromise with the rival British
project which has threatened to cross the border of their
sphere.
The British, ever alert and in the front rank of the ad¬
vance of business enterprises in the Orient, as elsewhere,
have, thus far, embarked upon the Niu-chwang extension be¬
fore referred to, and have obtained a mortgage lien upon the
important line between Tientsin and Peking, as also entered
into their prospective joint-purse arrangement with the
Germans in respect of the last mentioned railway pro¬
ject between Tientsin and Ching-kiang.
That they do not pause here, may be expected, and thus
we find the well-known English firm of Jardine, Mathiesen
& Co., to have also secured a valuable concession for a line
to extend from Shanghai via Soochauto Nanking, and north¬
westward towards the Lu-Han line, over a route running
22
generally west from the sea and connecting some of tlie
most important trade centres which lie along or near the
southern bank of the Yangtsze. Another English group,
known as the British-Chinese Corporation, is said to have
secured a concession covering the route from Soochau, via
Hang-chau to Ning-po, while a stiU more recent important
British movement is reported in the latest China dispatches,
in the shape of a concession which appears to have been ob¬
tained by the Anglo-Chinese Railway Syndicate, of London,
for a railway extending from Canton, westwardly to Cheng-
tu-fu, the Capital of the Province of Sze-chuan.
This latest road is designed to cross the Yangtsze at its
junction with the Min River, near Sui-fu, and that it may ulti¬
mately somewhere meet a projected extension of the Burma
Railway system, before alluded to, adds to its interest; for
such a line, as, in effect, affording a possible connection for
the Burmese system with Hong- Kong, would be of the high¬
est consequence.
A railway from Bahmo, for this purpose, has long been
planned and desired, if only as a means to effectually protect
the British sphere in the western Yangtsze region ; but, of late,
the better opinion seems to be that tlie physical difficulties
such a line would encounter between Bahmo and the south¬
western Chinese provinces are almost prohibitory. Mr. Col-
quhoun, in his recent work, cited above, points out that this
railway connection from Burma will be made via the Kun-
lon Ferry, on the Salween River, near the south-west corner
of Yunnan.
In this regard, a late cable dispatch, to the effect that the
French Government have decided to approve a loan by
Indo-China of 200,000,000 francs for railway extensions, is
of great significance; since, as is well known, the French
Colonial officials, for a long time past, have been aiming their
23
Tong-KÍTig railway system towards Ynnnan-fu, in tbe Chinese
Province of Yunnan, within the territory thus concerned. It
is, indeed, no secret that French railway projctors are keen
to thus reach and control the trade of Sze-chuan, as also
that they will not lament if, by so doing, a possible Brit¬
ish railway advance from Burma toward this important
section of China may thus be even partially headed-ofE.
Following the always wise policy of taking half a loaf,
where otherwise there may be no bread, the British as we
have seen, have combined with the Germans in respect of
the Tientsin, Ching-kiang line, in the disputed territory
above referred to. They have also since shared in what is
popularly known as the "Luzzati Concession," an important
Italian-English project, lately brought out on the London
stock market under the title of the Peking Syndicate,
Limited, with an effective "boom." This concession is
concerned witli the development of vast coal and iron de¬
posits of the Shan-si and Hönau Provinces, for which, and
the appropriate railway outlets to a navigable tributary of
the Yangtsze, and also to the Lu-Han line, ample contract
rights seem to have been duly obtained from the Imperial
Government.
A further franchise, of no less importance, it may be
remarked, appears to have been recently granted to W.
Pritchard Morgan, M. P., for working the mineral deposits of
the Province of Sze-chuan, one of the largest and richest
districts of Western China.
As to other railway projects of the various foreign
nationalities in China, these, although yet but few in number,
now seem to promise an early and plentiful crop, since a
great and growing pressure for concessions exists at the
present time in Peking. The Russo-Chinese Bank appears
to have contracted to construct a line of 140 miles from
24
Tai-yuan-fu, the capital of the Shan-si Province, to Cheng-
ting-fu, in tlie Province of Chihili, a large city south of
Pao-ting-fu on the Lu-Han line. This, although not in
Itself an extensive railroad project, has attracted atten¬
tion, as seeming to involve another Russian encroach¬
ment within the British Yangtsze sphere. Other contracts
are from day to day reported, and Russian and English in¬
terests are competing for the concession covering a further
line to Kalgan in the north, over a route long used for a
great caravan trade. As we have seen, the Germans have
many railway schemes developed within their Shang-tung
Hinterland.
So much for the actual or projected lines of railway thus
far created or discussed in China.
It may he worth while to consider, however briefly,
some of tlie political complications affecting or arising from
these various railroad projects. To this end, we should first
return to that most recent subject of international conflict
between the British and Russian interests, the projected ex¬
tension of the Tientsin, Shan-hai-kuan railway to Niu-
chwang.
Here, has existed a protracted quarrel, at times seeming
almost acute enough to mean an outbreak between Russia
and Great Britain which, incidentally, would have set the
outside world ablaze. The question involved is simple.
Niu-chwang, on the Liau River, in the Liau Tong
Peninsula, near the top of the Gulf of Pechili—the most
northern of the Treaty Ports of China—has long been the
chief inlet for a considerable, rapidly growing and heretofore
undisturbed British and American trade throughout the ex¬
tensive markets of Manchuria. It unfortunately now falls
within the area of the Russian sphere of agression in north¬
ern China, and by reason of its dominant position, is justly
25
the subject of jealous regard by all the various nationalities
desiring to protect, or control its trade, or to reach the terri¬
tory it concerns.
When it became apparent, from the Kussian survey-
plans of the Trans-Manchurian branch of their great Trans-
Siberian road*; which former section is better known as
the Chinese Eastern Eailway; that the liue here contem¬
plated is carefully calculated to leave the important entrepôt
of Niu-chwang in remote aloofness, with the obvious purpose
of deflecting its trade to the new Russian terminus at
Port Arthur or Talienwan, a serious menace to the in¬
terests of all other nationalities was immediately ap¬
parent. Thus too, at once appeared an obvious necessity
for providing safeguard against a threatened Russian
trade domination, and that this object might best be
attained by an independent railway connection to Niu-
chwang from other ports on the Grulf of Pechili, was a
natural conclusion.
Accordingly, it was somehow arranged behind the dip¬
lomatic curtains tliat the Chinese Imperial Railway Sys¬
tem should forthwith be completed along its originally
projected route from Shan-hai-kuan to Niu-chwang, and
one of the great British financial institutions of the Far East,
the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Lim¬
ited, presently appeared in readiness to ñnd whatever funds
might be required by the Imperial Chinese Government for
this purpose.
Now-a-days, a loan of moneys (in this case apparently
of £2,250,000 sterling) for the creation of a railway in any
* Of course no discussion of the railway situation in China is complete
without a fuller reference to the Kussian line in Siberia, and particularly to
that part of it in the Chinese territory of Manchuria, than is here afforded.
The writer may, however, in this regard conveniently refer to his former arti¬
cle, viz.: "The Trans-Siberian Railway and its Trans-Manchurian Extension,'*
in The Forum of May, 1898, for ample details on this subject.
26
quarter of the world, pre-supposes the retention hy the
lender, of a lien, which, in case of default, and if foreclosed,
may secure for the latter the possession of the line and of
the land it occupies.
Perceiving this, the Kussians promptly interposed an
active protest, and it is a matter of the familiar and
every-day history of the past few months how M. Pavloif^
the Russian Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, stormed over
the proposed railway extension, and how, above all, he op¬
posed the suggested loan and lien of the British Bank.
This, notwithstanding the fact that such extension is with¬
in the reserved rights of the Chinese Government, even
under the narrow restrictions imposed by the Russian Casini-
Convention.
That, in this juncture, the English press and public
arose in wrath, and through their exponents in Parliament
and otherwise, proceeded to the extreme length of treating
the situation as presenting one of those many "last straws"
which sometimes seem about to break the patient British
camel's back, is equally well known.
The acute stage of British resistance in this regard was,
however, presently relieved by a judicious compromise,
which left the Chinese Government, and the Hong-Kong and
Shanghai Bank, free to carry out the proposed railway exten¬
sion, unembarrassed, as it now seems, by any present
opposition, but still not without a substantial concession to
Russian susceptibilities on the part of the Bank, which ap¬
pears to have finally relinquished all claim of British lien on
that part of the new line lying north of Shan-hai-kuan or of
the Great Wall.
The Russian Emperor's really splendid, however futile
manifesto, making for universal peace and disarmament,
followed soon upon the quarrel here presented, and in this
27
circumstance cynical observers have affected to find a natural
coincidence. However this may he, the burning question
thus arising has, for the moment, smouldered down.
Whether the Eussians after their previous bold, and
often repeated aggressions in Manchuria, and in respect
of Port Arthur and Talienwan, concluded that the long
suffering and singular British forbearance theretofore
shown them, had here been strained to near the breaking
point, is a matter of curious interest, as indeed of probability.
That they might prudently have done so, and for awhile,
abstained from further acute provocation, is clear, seeing
that six, or more, tedious years still must elapse before the
Trans-Manchurian railway can be completed, and that until
then, Kussian tenure of Port Arthur, is, and will remain,
painfully insecure, in the presence of an acknowledged Brit¬
ish, not to speak of a Japanese maritime superiority, which at
any moment may be animated by an acute hostile protest.
It is, in fact, reported, that at this juncture, serious
friction arose between the progressive and the conservative
wings of the Tsar's advisers, in consequence of what the lat¬
ter considered to have been a too headlong Russian advance
in China, and of the many complications wisely deemed to
have been thus unnecessarily created.
One collateral point in the general situation is, at leasti
reasonably clear, and this is, that we of the United States
have here ample cause to thank Great Britain for the effort,
thus far wholly unassisted by us, to keep the "Open Door"
of Niu-chwang still ajar for our important trade in Man¬
churia, and also for the partial conservation of our great and
growing markets there, which must necessarily escape from
us whenever Russia's absorption of Manchuria is finally ac¬
complished through the completion of her railway to Port
Arthur and Talienwan.
28
At the moment, the dim light permeating these interna¬
tional Asiatic complications, would seem to indicate that the
recent acute British naval preparations are, or were, in¬
tended rather to safeguard Niu-chwang, and what it stands-
for, than either Fashoda, the Bahr-el-Ghazal, or other possible
'' pin-pricks " of Anglo-French dispute.
In any case, in view of the openly disclosed Eussian
railway operations, with their Cossack Guards, and other
frank military demonstrations, which Lord Roseberry, like
others before him, have recently found in and about the
Niu-chwang neighborhood, the pending British precau¬
tions can hardly be deemed unreasonable, for here, unless
past experience goes for nothing, may be discerned ample
indication of one of those startling forward Russian move¬
ments, which, however afterwards duly explained and
apologized for, uniformly result in enlarged Muscovite
tenure of China's soil, in further illustration of the J^y suis
fy reste principle.
Although many competent observers now confidently
believe the Russians intend to acquire Niu-chwang as soon as
may be, under some one of the methods of territorial acquire¬
ment which are so readily devised for the unprotected regions
of China, this theory is yet difficult to accept, seeing that so
extreme a step, if here taken, would evoke a just storm of
general international protest. Such an event would, indeed,
present the first open seizure of a Chinese Treaty Port, and
in China's ports of this class all the outside Treaty powers
are alike concerned, if only under the "most favored nation"
clauses of their respective treaties, and, in many of them,
enjoy an important and increasing trade. In a case of such
gravity, even the United States might awake to her waning
trade interests, and perhaps, go further than to merely
lodge futile protests with the helpless Cliinese Foreign Office.
29
Our British neighbors, while operating in China, have
always the substantial aid of great and locally well estab¬
lished financial, and commercial agencies like the Hong-Kong
and Shanghai Bank, Limited, the firm of Jardine, Mathiesen &
Co., and other firms or corporations, in addition to a well
equipped diplomatic and consular service whose tenure is
permanent.
The citizens of the United States unhappily lack
equal advantages,* as, indeed, under the past apparently in¬
different attitude of our State Department, they have failed
to receive even such preliminary encouragement and support
in Asia as the British authorities appear to be always ready
to supply for English enterprises in the Far East.
It is, however, now an open secret that, in respect of
the proposed American undertaking of the Hankau-Canton
railway project, cordial welcome and approval have been
offered by the principal British interests which are concerned
in China, and it is perhaps fair to suppose that, when an
American venture of this dignity and importance is once
fairly launched, it will receive active encouragement and
support from the authorities at Washington. In any case,
the great collateral benefits to accrue for American trade
from such a railway should readily ensure this result.
That, under the political complications at present affect¬
ing the Middle Kingdom, a cordial British concurrence should
logically thus result in favor of the present American railway
project, aside from other world-wide reasons which may and
do exist for a general British and American rapprochment,
hardly needs remark.
The broad Yangtsze Valley, usually claimed and con-
* That, notwithstanding our haphazard American fashion of selecting and
changing our diplomatic representatives, we have had such efficient represen¬
tatives as Mr. Denby, our recent Minister, and Mr. Conger, our present one, was,
or is a mere matter of luck under our present system.
30
ceded to be within the "Sphere" of British influence, is
peculiarly open to invasion, whether from the Eussians in
the North, the Germans in the East, or the French in the South
of the Chinese Empire, however partially protected in re¬
spect of the two latter regions by the commanding British
trade establishment at Shanghai, or by the English strong¬
hold of Hong-Kong. Any great railway system which may
be constructed and administered by Americans within the
southern half of the Middle Kingdom, must ever consti¬
tute a bulwark against foreign schemes of aggression in
that part of the Yangtsze Valley, and as well forestall the
lurking menace to the Open Door which always accompanies
movements of the kind. The threatened railway schemes of
the French thus far projected from their province of Tong-
King northward into China, have been supposed to mask
an effort to strike hands with the Eussians across the
Yangtsze Valley and that this intent, if it existed, is already
now partially checked by the mere suggestion of the inter¬
vening American railway project, is clear.
The railway operations thus far undertaken by the
Chinese have been financed chiefly, if not entirely, through
government contributions, and managed by foreign engineers
under native employ.
But, in the case of the more ambitious lines now in con¬
templation, the necessary funds are sought to be procured by
means of extensive foreign loans upon Imperial Government
bonds, of issues proportioned to the estimated cost of the re-
pective projects, secured specifically by mortgage of the
railways thus to be created. Provision is usually made that
the control and disbursement of the funds accrmng from any
such loan, pending construction, as also the future manage¬
ment of the proposed railway, shall remain in the control of
the foreign lenders during the term of the mortgage, or until
the bonds secnred thereby may sooner be paid off.*
* AmoDg the minor details cnstomarily provided for in the Chinese rail¬
way concessions to or contracts with foreigners, are the establishment of train¬
ing schools for native employees, the limitation of the use of the railway to the
transport of Chinese troops in case of war, the tactful recognition or native
susceptibilities on the part of the foreigners, etc.
31
Tims far, all efforts of foreigners to obtain a share or
stock interest, in addition to a mortgage-lien in any Chinese
railway project, have met with strenuous objection on the
part of the native officials, and, indeed, the existing law of
China appears to prohibit any such outside participation.
In this regard, the Chinese seem to have a deep-rooted
fear that such a foreign holding of stock might operate to
create some sort of alien ownership in China's soil, a pos¬
sibility which, curiously enough, is apparently far more
alarming to them than even the creation of the more definite
foreign liens afforded by mortgages extending over long
future periods.
In the case of the American Hankau-Canton contract,
native prejudice was so far overcome as to admit the allow¬
ance to the foreign contractors of an issue of debentures,
which, to a certain extent, may participate in the prospective
profits of the enterprise, and, in respect of the Belgian con¬
tract, there is provision for a twenty per cent, "bonus"—
apparently of the net proceeds of operation—during the thirty-
year term of the loan of 112,500,000 franca therein concerned.
In these two cases, effort has thus been made to appease
the foreigner with some sort of substitute for a share interest,
but these, and all such concessions, are founded primarily
on the theory that whenever the natives may find them¬
selves in position to pay off the respective foreign loans,
they may by such course, thus find relief from further
foreign participation or control.
In the chief railway contracts thus far executed with
foreigners, the plan of a mixed native and foreign Bureau,
or Board of management and disbursement, has been, as it
will hereafter probably continue to be advanced by the
Chinese, who, nevertheless, are still free to concede that, in
view of their own inexperience in railway affairs, such a de¬
partment should reasonably remain under the chief control
32
of the foreigners pending the repayment of any loans which
may be concerned.*
The Bureau plan thus evolved, has arisen from a native
effort to fit to the railways a somewhat strained analogy
with the important department of the Imperial Government
known as the Imperial Maritime Customs, which, in the
capable hands of the well-known Sir Robert Hart, has long
been under foreign control, and has operated without undue
friction to the satisfaction of the Chinese.
The requirement of such a Board, in the case of the pro¬
posed new railways, is not unreasonable, and the plan should
be susceptible not only of a present workable adjustment
but of future harmonious management. That a device of
this kind affords the means to soothe native susceptibilities,
and is therefore expedient, will be obvious. It at once ad¬
mits of participation on the part of the native officials in
what, after all, is primarily a Chinese railway venture, while
yet leaving the actual disbursement of the foreign funds, as
well as the management of the property thereby created,
in the hands of those who have contributed the loan, and
who alone are capable of the proper administration.
As already seen, the bonds to be issued under the pres¬
ent form of Chinese Railway contracts, although secured
specifically upon the lines designed to be created from their
proceeds, are yet, primarily, those of the Imperial Chinese
Government. It thus becomes pertinent to consider the
amount and standing of the Chinese Government obligations.
* A Peking dispatch to the London Times of ííovember 30,1898, indicates
that certain rules promulgated by a recently established Imperial Government
Board of Railways and Mines, seek to restrict future foreign participation in
Chinese railways to ventures in which there maybe native participation to the
extent of a three-flfths interest, and also to provide for native control, irrespec¬
tive of any contribution of foreign capital.
It is of significance that this measure emanates from the reactionary
government of the Empress Dowager. That, as the Times correspondent re-
remarks, this measure will be opposed by all the Foreign Ministers, is obvious.
Such restrictions would, of course, wholly prevent foreign investment in such
projects. These rules, however, could have no retroactive effect upon prior con¬
tracts like that of the American Hankau-Canton line, and others of the kind.
33
Thus far, the foreign loans of the Empire, including the
most recent one of £16,000,000; whereby, thanks to Anglo-
German takers, the Chinese were enabled to pay the Japanese
the balance of their war indemnity; amount in the aggregate
to about £54,000,000 sterling, a sum which, in view of the
magnitude and resources of China, and when contrasted with
the borrowings of other nations, is relatively moderate.
Especially when, it is remembered that the established
sinking-fund provisions should decrease this total, year by
year, and wholly amortize the debt (except as to the recent
loan of £16,000,000) within the next thirty-four years.*
The various borrowings here concerned were placed on
the foreign markets at interest charges ranging from seven
per cent, on the silver loan of £1,635,000 of the Hong-
Kong and Shanghai Bank, in 1894, to four per cent, on the
loan of £15,000,000 placed by the Russian and French
bankers in 1895, the latter, more favorable rate, having been
obtained by reason of political influences then affecting the
lenders.
In each of these cases, the security availed of was an
hypothecation of the receipts of the Imperial Maritime Cus¬
toms before alluded to, but in respect of the most recent loan
of £16,000,000, at five percent.; taken by combined Eng¬
lish and German banks; furtlier security, in the shape of a
mortgage of sundry of the Lekin and salt taxes, in addition to
the unhypothecated margin remaining from the customs re¬
ceipts, was resorted to.
Thus, although the Empire has recently been obliged to
supplement its customary form of security, it would appear
that it is not excessively burdened with indebtedness, and
that its credit has, thus far, been favorably regarded in the
financial markets of the world.
♦See "China, England and Russia," by R. S. Gundry, in Fortnightly
RevieWy Vol. LX, p. 506,
34
That China's borrowing power will be improved by the
introduction of railways is obvious, and that it could be
enormously enhanced by some such honest and systematic
collection of her interior tax resources, and of those affect¬
ing her coast-wise junk trade, such as that as afforded by
Sir Robert Hart's Maritime Customs Bureau is, alas, too true,
but the discussion of these long-vexed questions necessarily
extends beyond the scope of the present article.
What is here more immediately in point, is the query
whether a bond of the Cliinese Empire, based on its general
credit, and secured specifically on a railway property which
is to be created, and to be managed for a necessarily long
period, by a foreign administration, will constitute an invest¬
ment which the bond-markets of the world may deem botli
safe and attractive.
That it should so prove, seems to be reasonably proba¬
ble, even allowing for existing, or possible future political
complications within, or affecting the Empire. The Chinese»
it is well known, are faithful to any contract obligations
which they may have deliberately entered into, and, as we
have seen, any judiciously placed railway project within the
Empire should be profitable in its future operations.
That railways may be constructed and maintained in
China, with ultimate acquiescence on the part of the native
population, would now seem to have been sufficiently demon¬
strated. The Fêng-Shuey, those old obstructive geomantic
spirits of the air and water, which formerly made trouble,
now appear to have relaxed their jealous protest, in the
presence of the existing railway and telegraph lines, and the
Imperial and provincial governments may alike be reason¬
ably reckoned upon for whatever physical protection against
casual local outbreak, a national work of this kind may
chance to require.
35
Local political disturbances have thus far arisen, or
gained headway in China, from the absence of railway
communications rather than their presence, and in the ready
transport of troops and supplies now to be afforded by them
will be found an effective aid for the conservation of the
Empire.
In any event, the foreign railway ventures thus contem¬
plated, if their bond obligations are distributed throughout
the chief financial markets of the world, will have the
safeguard of potent outside political influences, whatever
fate may be in store for the unfortunate Middle Kingdom
amid the chops and changes of its present unsettled for¬
tunes.
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