Present Conditions in China 



669 



driven by native chauffeurs. I saw the 

 young daughter of a high official riding 

 a bicycle through the street in a foreign 

 concession, attended by a servant on an- 

 other wheel. * * * Among nation- 

 alities none is today more disposed to 

 take up new and improved methods than 

 the Chinese." 



CHINA FOR THE CHINESE 



And yet during the past year and more 

 the foreign press has been full of com- 

 plaints that there exists in China a bitter 

 hostility to foreigners, countenanced by 

 the government and encouraged by the 

 more intelligent and influential classes of 

 the population. It is alleged that every- 

 where throughout the Empire the cry is 

 "China for the Chinese," and that this 

 means the exclusion of foreigners from 

 all concessions and enterprises and from 

 participation in the development of the 

 .country. To support these allegations 

 the following, among other recent occur- 

 rences, are cited : The compulsory sur- 

 render of the Canton-Hankow Railroad 

 concession, the Shanghai riot, the anti- 

 American boycott, and the foreign cus- 

 toms supervision. Let us examine how 

 far the facts sustain these allegations. 



Much misinformation has been pub- 

 lished respecting the repurchase of the 

 Canton-Hankow Railroad. Only a few 

 weeks ago so reliable a periodical as the 

 New York Independent stated that the 

 Chinese government had forced the re- 

 purchase in obedience to the demand of 

 the Chinese Nationalists for the cancella- 

 tion of all foreign concessions. The 

 facts, briefly stated, are that out of special 

 consideration for the United States the 

 Chinese government granted to an Amer- 

 ican company in 1898 the most valuable 

 franchise in its gift, a concession to build 

 a railroad from Canton to Hankow, a 

 distance with its branches of over 900 

 miles, through the most densely popu- 

 lated part of the country. As the gov- 

 ernment desired for political reasons that 

 it should be an exclusively American en- 

 terprise, it inserted a provision in the 

 contract that the ownership or control of 



the company should not be transferred to 

 any other foreigners. After some years 

 spent in vain efforts to raise the necessary 

 capital in New York, the company did 

 what it was expressly forbidden to do, 

 sell a majority of the stock to Belgians, 

 with what was believed to be the backing 

 of China's most feared competitor, Rus- 

 sia. Besides, the representatives of the 

 company by their overbearing conduct 

 had incurred the hostility of the local au- 

 thorities and people in China. Seven 

 years passed without any serious effort to 

 build the road, as only 32 miles had been 

 constructed, and that merely a branch 

 line. Under these circumstances the 

 government gave notice to the company 

 that it had forfeited its concession by 

 reason of the sale to the Belgians, but 

 that it was prepared to repay all the ex- 

 penditures of the company. The latter 

 then alleged it had bought back the con- 

 trol from the Belgians; but it was too 

 late to re-establish itself in the confidence 

 of the people of the provinces, and by a 

 friendly arrangement the Government 

 paid to the company three times the 

 amount of its total expenditures and re- 

 ceived a surrender of the concession. 



There is a concurrence of testimony of 

 American observers on the ground that 

 the company by its bad conduct and un- 

 businesslike methods had forfeited all 

 consideration. Hon. William E. Curtis, 

 during a recent visit to China, wrote: 

 "The famous American-China Devel- 

 opment Company [the Canton-Hankow 

 Railroad Company] has made a wretched 

 mess of its concession and has dragged 

 the honor and credit of American capi- 

 talists across about 700 miles of Chinese 

 mud and dust." 



Mr McCormick, the agent of the Asso- 

 ciated Press during the Russo-Japanese 

 war, just returned from China, in a recent 

 article in the New York Outlook, says 

 that the company clearly broke its faith 

 with the Chinese government, and that its 

 conduct, more than any other fact of our 

 intercourse, tended "to destroy American 

 prestige and damaged every American 

 enterprise in China." Mr Millard, a 



