2
August 16, 1909.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
suffered from the aristocratic pretensions of short distance out of Antung, and the older ranks failing to accommodate another small stage before Mukden, the themselves with the junior bourgeoisie, the entire journey is through mountains, and it financial necessities of the country have in is therefore a beautiful trip for scenery. the upper departments led to the paring The railway climbs painfully up the moun- down of supplies. A republican ministry tain sides to the summits, and in one place, has had little personal sympathy with the owing to the zig-zags necessary to cross a old style of officers whose requisitions the mountain, there are seven tracks, one above official branch was wont to put down to the other. The slow rate at which the train mere aristocratic pedantry. The two in proceeds may be judged when it is stated fact had little sympathy. The Minister of that at one point the engine-driver left his Finance, from the necessity of the case, had engine, and ran in front of it to a curve. to keep a close check on expenditure, and Having seen that the line was clear he impressed this on the Minister administer waited until the train overtook him and ing the Navy. The higher officers, accustom- then jumped on board again. The bridges ed to the old traditions, were dissatisfied along the line are small wooden structures, with what they looked upon as innovations; some of them exceedingly high above the and could not he got to comprehend the water. Cars are frequently jumping the financial difficulties in the way. The result track, which is insecure and most unsafe; has been an almost complete estrangement in fact, there is considerable danger attend between the Executive and the Supplying the trip. The Japanese demand to departments. Deprived of useful counsel reconstruct the line, and put it into proper from the Executive class, the Minister of working order, appears, therefore, reas 1. Marine has too often been driven to makeable and necessary." reductions injurious to the efficiency of the Fleet. The various departments ceased to work in harmony together, so that ships, armaments, and ammunition were seldom in unison, and one or other had to wait, some- times for years, the completion of the other. So extreme had been in cases the divergence that ships were found to be already out- classed before the completion of their arma- ments. It would take up too much space to trace the influence of this decadence of France as a Naval Power upon international politics since the Morocco difficulty arose, which, in the words of M. CLEMENCEAU, led France to "the greatest humiliation she ever suffered." Germany showed to the world that France was unwilling to risk a contest, but it has been left to a Commission in the year 1909 to reveal to the nation the deplor- able state to which the French Navy has really sunk. Prompt action has been taken on this report with a view to rehabilitate France as a Naval Power, but meanwhile Germany has stepped into her place as the second Naval Power in the world, menacing even the supremacy of Great Britain on the seas, and gaining correspondingly an in- fluence among the nations of the world, which has been especially evidenced of late in China.
HE ANTUNG
THE ANTUNG-MUKDEN RAILWAY QUESTION.
(Daily Press, August 9th.) Under an Agreement between Japan and China made in Decemler, 1905, Japan acquired the right to improve the Antung- Mukden railway so 28 to make it fit for the conveyance of commercial and industrial goods of all nations. We have not at hand the text of the agreement, but its purport was as we have stated. The present, line between Mukden and Antung, 128 miles in length, is a Decauville light railway of 2guage It was constructed by the Japanese for military purposes during the war with Russia. The Commissioner of the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs at Antung referred to it in his 1907 Trade Report as "that wonderful little 29-inch track which overcame the Russian forces in front of it by the weight of lead and stores which it belched forth at them from the railhead. It remains as a splendid example of military engineering; but, in its present form, it is a far too light and ambitious mountaineer to have any serious commercial importance attaching to it." Mr. E. S. LITTLE, who contributed to the N.-C. Daily News last week a descriptive account of a recent journey through Manchuria, thus refers to the line:"Except for a
It was the intention of the Japanese rail- way administration to begin the reconstruc tion of the line last Spring, and it was contemplated that within three years there would be a broad guage railway from Antung to Mukden, following in the main the course of the present light railway. China apparently contends that the agree ment does not give to Japan the right to reconstruct the railway, but merely to "improve" it, and some contention has also arisen over the proposal of the Japanese to construct a bridge over the Yalu with a view to joining this Antung-Mukden line with the trunk line, over 600 miles in length, which runs through Korea. Mr. KENT, in his useful book entitled "Railway Enterprise in China," summarises the agreement in these terms: "The Antung-Mukden line is to be constructed and operated by Japan for a period of eighteen years, calculated from the 22nd of December. 1905. On the ex- piration of this period the Imperial Chinese Government have the right to acquire the line at a price to be settled by arbitration." More than three and a half years of that period have already elapsed, and the impa- tience of Japan at the delay due to Chinese obstruction can be readily appreciated, for the longer the delay the less valuable the concession becomes from the commercial psit of view. But the Chinese attitude apparently has been that Japan has not heen looking so much to its commercial as to its strategical value. This, however, is an argument which it is not easy to follow. If only strategical considerations entered into the matter, there would appear to be no very urgent reason for the reconstruction of the line, but it is admitted that if the line is reconstructed to standard guage and con- nected by a bridge across the Yalu the line would possess great commercial possibilities. Te Customs Commissioner at Autung, who naturally sympathises
extent with the Chinese attitude, writes: " Yet, if both the bridge and the new rails materialise, this route from Japan to Siberia, now one of the most diversely interesting in the East, should becouse one of the most frequently travelled.'
to some
With regard to the bridge across the Yalu the Chinese Authorities asked that the plans be so drawn as to provide for some form of draw or swing over the channel, so that the Chinese town at Antung might not be subjected to the inconvenience and expense of having all its deep-sea shipping prevented from coming up to or nearer the Bund. The plan for the bridge, a structure 3,182 feet long, divided into 200 and 300 foot truss spans, provided that it should be only 26 feet above high water. Since the
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ordinary cargo boats within the harbour carry masts of from 30 to 40 feet, and the sea-going junks, which ply regularly between Antung and Chefoo, have staffs averaging over 50 feet, Chins'e protest against a c'oced bridge of such a height as to hamper her sen-going traffic is a perfectly reasonable one. Such a protest could hardly be ignored by Japan, and though we do not know how this matter now stands, we cannot suppose that Japan has failed to see the reason. ableness of China's objection and endea- voured to mest it. In the absence of any information on the point we assume this objection has been met, since it does not seem to have figured in the contention of late, which appears to be concerned solely with the question as to whether or not the improvement of the line contemplated by the agreement covers reconstruction. It seems so clear that the original intention was that Japan should have the right to make it as commercially useful and valuable as possible, that we cannot be surprised that Japan should have grown impatient under China's obstructive tactics and decided to proceed with her plans forthwith. That the relations between the two Powers should have been strained to this extent is greatly to be regretted, but the impartial observer can hardly fail to sympathise with Japan in the matter.
BOYCOTTS AND BLACKMAIL.
(Daily Press, August 10th) Now that the members of the Self- Government Society of Canton, at a meeting attended, according to the report we puh lished yesterday, by several thousands of persons, have enthusiastically resolved to
a
have no further dealings with any firm, Chinese or foreign, who employ Portuguese clerks or assistants," we trust strong diplo matic action will be taken, not by any individual Minister at Peking, but by the whole Diplomatic Body. During the brief existence of the Self-Government Society at Canton it has successfully engineered three boycotts against foreign com nercial interests, and has now
entered upon a fourth, more far-reaching than any which have preceded it, but too far-reaching, perhaps, to be as successful as the others proved, if only there is combination among foreign firms to resist the domination of this imischievous organisation. We have seen boycotts successfully preached for a time, first, against American trade, then against Japanese trade, and latterly. against. single British firm with extensive and manifold interests in China. Diplomatic action has proved futile, and experience has shown that when the boycott is directed against individual firm, the quickest, if not the only, method of ending it is submission to a species of blackmail. Individual firms cannot be blamed for sacrificing principle to interest, but that this Society should be allowed to con- tinue to act in defiance of the Treaties by imposing restraints on trade not only shows the Chinese administration to be scandalous- ly ineffective to secure the observance of the Treaties, but reflects seriously also upon the effectiveness of diplomatic action at Peking. We have seen this Society since it came into existence not only preaching boycotts, but enforcing them with heavy penalties on insubordinate traders, and, what is more, we have heard of one case where blackmail was paid by a firm simply to avoid a reference of a matter to the Self-Government Society, though the firm was well assured that the charge made had not the slightest foundas tion in fact. According to the Treatie- foreigners "shall receive and enjoy for