"gospel".
The total length of the Canton-Hankow line is 2,000 and several hundred li of which less than 300 are in Hupei. Over 1,200 are in Hunan; besides above Hengchou there is much hill track. The average cost per li being estimated for whole at Tis 15,000,
the Hunan section will require over Tis 18,000,000.
To this must be added Hunan's 3 sevenths of the interest and amortization charges on the resumption loan and the outstanding gold bonds, that is 5 or 6 million taels, without reckoning interest on the shares raised locally. The grand total will thus be 20 odd millions of taels. Of late years the state of every province is one of anxiety for the people's straits and the exhaustion of wealth. That such vast sums for railway work even if sought to be raised over a series of years can be managed, one dare not assert, so the date of completion of the whole line is really likely to be indefinitely postponed. Supposing money be borrowed for building it, the whole line could be definitely finished within five years. The sooner the work is done, the sooner there will be a traffic profit and after it pays by raising half in shares and charging half to traffic profits, the loan could be paid off in a period of 10 years.
As to method of raising loan it might be by annual instalments gradually arranged for without making one state the sole creditor and only paying interest without bidding lenders undertake the work or giving separate advantages nor need the line be given as pledge. By such an arrangement a foreign loan would entail no malpractice.