CHINESE RAILWAYS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3138, 15 March 1909, Page 5

CHINESE RAILWAYS.

BRITISH AND GERMAN INTERESTS. VIOLATION OF AN AGREEMENT. STATEMENT BY DR. MORRISON. LONDON, March 21. Dr. G. E. Morrison, the wellknown correspondent cf "The Times," states that a German syndicate is loaning three million pounds for the construction of the northern half of the Canton-Han-Kau railway. He points out that this is a direct violation of the agreement of 1905, which specified that British capital and British "material should be used, «nd it also disregards the BritishGerman agreement of 1898, defining the spheres of railway interest of the respective countries.

There has been a considerable "boom" in railway planning and construction in China of late, and a corresponding jealousy of foreign ownership and management. Writing a few months ago Dr. Morrison said:— "The latest scandal is in connection with the English section of rhe Tien-ts-in-Yang-tsze Anglo-German trunk line. The northern two-thirds, that is, the German section from Tien-ts-in to the southern order of Shan-tung, is making good progress under a Chinese managing director, who allows the German engineer-in-chief an adequate staff, and who is actively co-operating in the work. The southern third, that is, the British section, under a British en-gineer-in-chief, from the southern border of Shantung to the Yangtsze, is making no progress whatever. The managing director, who is a native of Canton, and has been educated in America, is effectively preventing the work of construction. Although the contract is signed, and the work is to be completed in four years, an official report, dated December sth, 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 once by the chief engineer m the course of two whole months." A correspondent writing in the commercial > supplement of "The Times" last year, said:—"Railways under effici?nt foreign expert supervision have been proved to be a source of wealth and strength to the country, and this supervision has been shown to be quite compatible with unimpaired authority in the hands of the Chinese directorate; but railways under purely Chinese management have so far (with the one exception of the Kalgan line) resulted in wasteful chaos.