162 



CHINA. 



only suggested to China that she should agree 

 in principle to such a line being constructed 

 should opportunity arise and Russian subjects 

 petition for a concession. This assurance, when 

 reported in a dispatch to the British minister at 

 Pekin, amused the Tsung-li-Yamen. The right 

 of the Russians to construct railroads to 1 ekm 

 or south of Pekin as far as the Yangtse basin 

 is not precluded by the agreement, The Anglo- 

 Russian agreement, was lirst suggested by M. 

 Lessar, the Russian charge d'affairr* at London, 

 in August, 180S, after the British minister at St. 

 Petersburg, Sir Charles Scott, had said to Count 

 Muravietr that his Government would not pos- 

 sibly acquiesce in an arrangement that left all 

 China open to the railroad enterprises of Russia 

 while excluding England from her share in the 

 railroad enterprises of Manchuria. Count Mura- 

 vietf disclaimed any desire to block English en- 

 terprise anywhere, 'and denied that the prohibi- 

 tion to China to mortgage the Niuchwang Rail- 

 road to foreigners infringed the treaty rights of 

 England, as all foreigners were debarred, even 

 Russians. In discussing the delimitation of 

 spheres for railroad concessions, Count Mura- 

 vietr drew the distinction that Russia's interest in 

 China was more political, and confined to the 

 north of Pekin, and especially to Manchuria, for 

 the protection of the Siberian outlet, while that 

 of England was chiefly commercial, and was more 

 confined to central China and the basin of the 

 Yangtse. As negotiations proceeded he suggested 

 that the limits of the region called the Yangtse 

 basin ought to be defined. Lord Salisbury, who 

 understood it to embrace the provinces adjoining 

 the Yangtse river and Honan and Chekiang, 

 thought too that a precise definition was desir- 

 able, but none was given in the agreement. 



An English syndicate, associated with Italians, 

 acquired a right in the province of Shansi to con- 

 struct railways to connect with main lines or 

 with navigable water ways, in order to facilitate 

 the transport of coal from the mines of Luhsien 

 and Pingtingchow, which are about 250 miles 

 distant from the Yangtse-Kiang. In the lower 

 Yangtse valley an English syndicate obtained 

 concessions for a railroad to connect Shanghai 

 with Nankin, 180 miles, with the right of ex- 

 tension to Hsingyan in Honan, 270 miles, and a 

 railroad betweeft Suchau and Hangchau, 120 

 miles, with the right of extension to Ningpo, 80 

 miles. The Russo-Chinese Banking Corporation, 

 which is the financial agency through which the 

 Russian Government has carried out its schemes, 

 constructed the railroad running 100 miles south- 

 west of Pekin to Paoting, and was pushing it on 

 to Chengting, 100 miles farther, with the right of 

 prolongation westward for 140 miles to Taiyuan. 

 Negotiations were opened for its further continu- 

 ation southward 330 miles to Si-Ngan-Fu, the 

 capital of Shansi, situated on the edge of the 

 Yangtse basin. The Russian Government gave 

 notice that no concession could be granted with- 

 out its consent for any railroad to join the Tai- 

 yuan section from the south. The British min- 

 ister in June notified the Tsung-li-Yamen that 

 the Pekin syndicate intended to construct sev- 

 eral railroads in the southwest of Shansi prov- 

 ince, with the object of developing various mines 

 and the petroleum wells in the district of Pu- 

 chau. One line was to run from Yuhsien to 

 Taiyuen-Fu, and thence to Pingyang-Fu, Puchau, 

 and Tungkwan. The same syndicate announced 

 the intention of making a railroad to connect 

 the Honan mines, by way of Kaifong, with the 

 Yangtse river opposite Nankin, the Siangyang 

 route having been found impracticable. This last 



railroad the Tsung-li-Yamen opposed' on the 

 ground that it would interfere with the traffic of 

 the Luhan line. The Russians, in rivalry with 

 the British, began to negotiate for a line to Si- 

 Ngan-Fu, the capital of Shansi. 



The right to connect Kaulung, the newly ac- 

 quired British territory on the mainland opposite 

 Hong-Kong, with Canton, 100 miles, was ac- 

 quired by one of the largest British business 

 houses in China. An American syndicate ob- 

 tained the concession for an important line, 600 

 miles in length, to connect Hangkow with Can- 

 ton, and afterward arrangements were made for 

 the co-operation of this same British firm, which 

 had projected a line from Canton to tap the rich 

 and populous province of Szechuen by connecting 

 its capital, Changtoo, with Wuchow, on the West 

 river, whence, traffic can reach Canton and Hong- 

 "Kong either by steamers or by a proposed rail- 

 road. A railroad connecting Changtoo with the 

 projected American line will have a length of 

 600 miles. A concession for a line from Pekin 

 to Hangkow, 650 miles, was granted to a Bel- 

 gian syndicate, which was believed by the British, 

 to be under Russian and French influence and 

 control. The line, called the Luhan, from the 

 first syllables of the terminal stations, will form 

 an important link in the chain of railroads that 

 will traverse China from north to south and con- 

 nect with the Siberian line in the north. For 

 its construction a loan of 4,500,000 was ob- 

 tained from French banks. A railroad, 613 miles 

 in length, running from Tientsin southeast to 

 Shanghai was projected by British capitalists, 

 who obtained a concession for the first section 

 from Shanghai northward. A large part of this 

 route passes through the province of Shantung, 

 in which Germany asserts preferential railroad 

 and mining rights in virtue of the Kiau-Chau con- 

 cession. It is crossed at two points by projected 

 German lines running from the port of Kiau-Chau 

 to important coal and iron regions. The British, 

 concessionaires agreed to share the costs and 

 profits of the entire enterprise with German capi- 

 talists, and to acknowledge German jurisdiction 

 over the part of- the line passing through Shan- 

 tung. The Chinese Government, however, was. 

 unwilling to relinquish this jurisdiction to the 

 German authorities. The attempts of the Ger- 

 mans to construct the railroads from Kiau-Chau 

 into the interior under the protection of German 

 military guards encountered resistance on the 

 part of the authorities and the people. The 

 arrangement with England in regard to the trunk 

 line was that Germans should build and control 

 not only the Shantung section, but the northern 

 section up to Tientsin, while the British would 

 construct the southern continuation from the 

 southern border of Shantung to Chinkiang, where 

 it meets the existing railroad from Shanghai. 

 Germany came to an agreement with the Chinese 

 Government with regard to the Shantung sec- 

 tion, in accordance with which it is to be, like 

 the other sections, a Chinese state railroad, but 

 will be built and managed for China by Germans 

 with a German loan guaranteed by the Chinese 

 Government. A loan of 7,400,000 was raised 

 at 5 per cent, to build the railroad in the course 

 of five years. The German Shantung Railroad 

 Company waived its right to build a line con- 

 necting Ichau-Fu with Tsinan-Fu in favor of the 

 Anglo-German company. The Germans have 

 planned a new commercial harbor at Kiau-Chau, 

 which has been declared a free port. When the 

 Manchurian Railroad is completed, the track 

 having already been laid beyond Mukden, Talien- 

 wan will also be made a free port. 



