CHINESE RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 459, 18 March 1909, Page 5

CHINESE RAILWAYS.

BROKEN AGREEMENTS. CLAIMS OF BRITISH CAPITALISTS. CONSTRUCTION WORKS. IPV Tr.I.ECJUM'II—rUHSS ASSOCIATION — cnryuiflnt J Lcnrlcn, March 16. The British Government has authorised Sir J. N. Jordan, Minister Plenipotentiary at Peking, to make representations to China with regard to tho non-observance of the Shanghai-Ningpo Railway contract. China is taking active steps to meet the British wishes and to prevent obstruction of the British section of tbo Tientsin to Yangts'7,o Railway construction works. CHINESE,"MANAGING DIRECTORS." The Shnnghai-Ningpo and the TientsinVanglzo railways or* among those recently referred to by the Peking correspondent cf "The Times," ns being instances where (he operation of British capital is hampered through China's violations of contract. The case of the Shanghai-Ningpo line was explained in The Dominion of March 11. With regard to the other railway, the correspondent wrote in December: "The latest scandal is in connection with the English section of tho TiontdnYangtse Anglo-Gorninn trunk line. Tho northern two-thirds, that is, tho German section from Tientsin to the southern border of Shantung, is making good progress under a Chinese managing director, .who allows the German engineer-in-chief an adequate staff, and wlio is actively co-operating in the work. The southern third, that is, tho British section, under a British engineer-in-chief, from the southern border of Shantung to the Yangtsze, is making no prgoress whatever. The managing director, who is a native of Canton, and has been educated in America, is effeceively preventing the work of construction. Although the contract is signed and the work is to ho completed in four years, an official report, dated December 5, states that the survey has been completed, but that no rails have been ordered, no sleepers purchased, and no earthworks constructed. The managing director, instead of residing on the railway, frequents Shanghai, and has been seen only onco by the chief. engineer in the course of two whole months."