CHINA
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Seymour's failure in his gallant attempt to rescue the Legations. All the lines in North China were attacked and badly cut. The terminus at Peking has been brought inside the Chinese City and is at the Chien Men or Southern Gate of the Manchu City. A branch line has been made from this terminus to Tung Chow, the head of the water- ways; and both the French and Germans have pushed on the trunk lines being built under their exclusive auspices in Chihli, Honan, and in Shantung respectively. Railway vandalism was the first evidence of the savagery and magnitude of the Boxer sedition. It is significant that the Imperial Government was so inert in protecting its own property.
A Belgian Syndicate has constructed a trunk line of about 650 miles in length from Hankow to Paotingfu, where it joins the existing Paotingfu and Lukoachiao- line, thus giving through communication with Peking. The line is now said to be more French than Belgian. In Honan the railway crosses the Yellow River on one of the longest bridges in Asia, but it is an open secret that mistakes have been made as to the character of the available foundations and the requirements of the traffic to be carried on have been seriously misjudged. The American- China Development Company obtained a concession for the construction of a line from Wuchang, on the southern bank of the Yangtsze immediately opposite to Hankow, to Canton. A branch line from Canton to Fatshan and Shamsui was completed in 1904. It became known about this time that Belgians had acquired a predominating interest in the concession, and the announcement aroused so powerful an opposition among the Chinese of the provinces to be traversed by the trunk line that the concession was cancelled by the Chinese Government who agreed to pay to the Amer- ican China Development Co. the sum of $6,750,000 (gold) by way of compensation. The money for this purpose was lent to the Wuchang Viceroy by the Government of Hongkong. The line is now being constructed by Chinese the capital being subscribed exclusively by Chinese. The British-Chinese Corporation in 1899 obtained a conces- sion for a line to connect Canton with Kowloon, but as the years passed without any indications of a serious intention to proceed with the construction of the line, public agitation in Hongkong resulted in the British Government deciding to make the section through British territory, at the cost of the Colony. The actual work of construction was commenced in the autumn of 1905, and the British section is ex- pected to be finished early in 1909. Towards the end of 1906 China contracted with the British and Chinese Corporation for a loan of £1,500,000 to build the other section, which will give direct railway connection between Canton and Kowloon. Work on that section is now proceeding. German concessionnaires secured the right to construct two lines from the German Settlement at Kiaochau to Chinanfu and Ichou in the interior of the Shantung province. The line to Chinan, the capital of Shantung, was commenced in 1900, and is now open for traffic over the entire length of 247 miles. An Anglo-German Syndicate has been authorised to make a line from Tientsin to Chinkiang, the Germans having charge of the northern portion of the undertaking and the British of the southern. The British-Chinese Syndicate, which has amalgamated with the Peking Syndicate, secured the right to construct a line from Shanghai via Soochow to Nanking and north-westward to join the Lu-Han line (as the Hankow-Peking_line is called), and also a line from Soochow via Hangchow to Ningpo. The Shanghai-Nanking line is now in operation. A line from Canton to Chengtu, the provincial capital of Szechuen, has also been mentioned. Surveys have been conducted with a view of finding a practicable route for a railway to connect Burmah with the Yangtsze region in Szechuen, and it is anticipated that a definite project for such a line will shortly be launched. A French syndicate is making a line from Laokay, near the Tonkin frontier, to Yunnan. It is a difficult undertaking, involving the making of 145 tunnels. The chief obstacle to rapid progress is scarcity of labour. The valley of the Namti, through which the line passes, is extremely unhealthy, and work has to be practically confined to the cool season. Sections of the line, especially in the neighbourhood of Mengtze, are in working order. The whole line, a distance of about 280 miles, is expected to be completed in 1909. The French also secured concessions for lines from Lungchow to Nanning and from Nanning to Pakhoi, but it is doubtful whether these will be carried out, as their tendency would be to divert trade from the French colony to the West River route. Indeed, the proposed railway from Pakhoi to Nanning appears to have been abandoned, and it is probable that one from Kwanchouwan, through the Yulin district, to the nearest point on the West River and thence to Nanning will take its place. An Anglo-Italian Syndicate has been authorised to work coal and iron mines in the province of Honan and to build railways connecting the mines with navigable rivers; under this contract a line from Taiyuen to Singanfu and a branch to