CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 80, 30 April 1909, Page 4

CHINA.

ENGINEERING AND BRITISH CAPITAL. The London Times' Pckin correspondent in a despatch dated Shanghai, February 17, says : 1 have just returned from inspecting, in company with 1111 English engineer, the work on the Shaiigliai-llaiig-v.nau-Ning-pu Railway, for the construction of which Britisn investors have lent China £1,500,000. Construction and control of the railway were to be " entirely vested in the Imperial Chinese Government. Materials were to be. obtained by tender, and, other things being equal, lint,ish gouds were to have pretereiice. There 'was to be a British chief engineer who was to be consulted in the appointment and removal of the technical stall. It is with regret that I now have to report that the loan conditions have been violated, the loan funds are being squandereed, and the interests of the British bondholders jeopardised. The correspondent goes on to say that every important stipulation of the loan contract has been violated,'and the work has been badly and wastofully done. He continues : —" Nominally there is a British chief engineer. But he is not recognised by the native companies to whom tile money was handeed. He has no authority and is not permitted to interfere in works under construction nor rectify blunders committed in work already completed. Only Chinese are employed. Oiic of the engineers, though in control of 20 miles of railway, has no engineering training, but owes his appointment to the fact that he was the favourite student of the president of the company, who is 11 well-known authority on the analects of Confucius.

"Built under such conditions, tne railway presents every possible defect. Bridges are unsafe. Rails are of native manufacture, of obsolete section spiked into soft wood sleepe.s, from Mancnuria and Japan. Sleepers are wrongly laid. Wrongly ballasted their life on this soil is littie more than one year. Eight different patterns of rolling stock arc in use. Oidv a small proportion of the material is British. All stipulations regarding purchase by tender, with British goods to enjoy preference, have been disregarded. Where there was difficulty h bridging a stream the Chinese built the bridge on dry land and then dug a canal and diverted- the waterway under the bridge, both the entrance to i tfne diversion and the exit from it being literally at right angles to the natural direction of the stream. Their two largest bridges consist each of two spans of 2<X)tt In each ease a central pier was formed in the following way. Rubble was thrown into the centre of the stream until an islet as formed and on this insecure foundation—for the rivers are both swift and deep—the pier was constructed. An official statement now before me shows that of the proceeds of the £1,500,00 loan only £355,000 remain in EiHand for the purchase of material, etc the remainder has been transferred to the llong-kong and Shanghai bank, Shanghai. The Yu-chaun-pn had to Lie end of January withdrawn ,0215,833, and ]od"cd the amount iu the native bank belonging to the Ministry. \\ ithdrawals will presumably be continued until.the deposit is exhausted. At the time these amounts were handed over to the Yu-ehaun-pu their president, Cn'enpi and 17 members of his stall' were under impeachment for thieving extraordinary. On the flth inst. Ch'en-pi was cashiered Negotiations are again in progress to lend China for the Canton-Han-kau Railway more millions of British money under conditions similar to those just described."