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Extract from report by Mr. C. L. Bland to Major-General Hatton, dated 7th February, 1904.
C.O. 10378 209 Red 22 MAR 04
"The enormous extent of country in direct communication with Hankow and the position of that City nearly in the centre of China; its position on the Yangtse high-road, with access by Ocean-going Steamers for one-half of the year; the rapid growth of the foreign settlement there, and of trade intercourse with the Chinese; the existence of manufacturing industries using quantities of modern imported machinery and the tremendously increased facilities for traffic (especially in raw China-grown material for their factories) about to be afforded by the railway to the Yellow river and Peking all combine to promise a most rapid development for Hankow. When the Chinese Merchants who now congregate to Shanghai from the eight provinces touching the Yangtze waters to find there the representatives of all the European firms in the best way, when they find the same firms beginning to be represented at Hankow, they will certainly become the central market and centre of affairs in China.
From the British point of view it is of first moment that we should have principal interests in the communications both by shipping and rail, since the key to the large import Markets of the future and of the export from eight provinces will be in the hands of the nation controlling the traffic. This point bears strongly on any question concerning the present shipping and railway situation such as the Hankow-Canton railway and the expediency or otherwise of the projected railways across Anhui and into Ssu-chuan".
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