༄།།ས་ལ། སྟ་ ོན
THE TIMES, MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1909.
British Interests and British Help in China,
We published last week several messages from our Correspondents in China of which the moral for more than one class of British readers is not fur to seck. Our
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aspirations extends even to condoning the violation of international agreements. German
C.O.
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diplomacy indulges in no such sentimentalities; [25 MAR 0
snd, as the Chinese have learnt to their cost in Shan-tung.it never allows one iota of its rights, however foreefully established, to be tampered with or abated. As the Germans say: Die Gemüthlichkeit hört beim Geschäfte auf. There is doubtless amongst a large and, we believe, a growing class of Chinese a genuine desire for administrative and social reforms, but
Poking Correspondent took the opportunity afforded to him by his visit to Shanghai in connexion with the Opium Conference to inspect in company with an English engineer the work on the Shanghai-Hang-chau-Ning-po|| amongst the governing class in Chine the old Railway, for the construction of which the traditions are evidently still paramount. Those British public has lent China the large sum who would fight against them, like YUAN SHI- of one and a half million sterling. His report KAI, soon pay heavily for their temerity. Where cannot, we fear, have proved pleasant reading British interests are concerned this country for those who have put their money into that has no right to relax its vigilance in deference undertaking. In reliance presumably upon to the counsels of that indulgent optimism with the progressive tendencios and good faith which the atmosphere of China tends to saturate of the new China," they agreed that the the Western mind. His MAJESTY'S Govern- construction and control should be “entirely mont, we need hardly say, must look to it that "vested in the Imperial Chinese Government.* British interests shall not be sacrificed to the r The result has been, according to our Corre- greed of Chinese Mandarins in regard either f spendent, whose sympathies for the
"new
to the Ning-po Railway or to the construction "China are beyond dispute, that the of the Canton Railway. British capitalists-f "loan conditions have been violated, the in agreement, if possible, with French and 1 "loan
funds are being "quandored, and German capitalists---would probably do well "the interests of the British bondholders in the meantime to draw their purse-strings a jeopardized." The Chinese Ministry of Com- little tighter when approached by Chinese munications, with whom the British and officials for further accommodation. Chinese Corporation had negotiated the loan contract, appears to have unceremoniously brushed aside that agreement under pressure from the provinces concerned, and to have transferred the loan proceeds to two provincial companies, who were allowed to dispose of them at their own sweet will. Jobbery and nepotism ran riot, with the inevitable result that the British investors' money, lodged in a native bank" of doubtful integrity," has been steadily withdrawn on 66
requisitions" unaccompanied by certificates, and that all there is to show for it 80 far is the mere torso of a line, on which the bridges are unsafe, the sleepers wrongly laid, the metals worth- less, and eight different patterns of rolling stock bear witness to the predatory resource- fulness of the Chinese directors. The tele- gram We published on Friday from our Shanghai Correspondent completed the sorry
tale.
It is not surprising that in these circum- stances the British and Chinese Corporation | have not seen their way to provide another loan which CHANG CHIH-TUNG, though he is fully aware of the disastrous results in the case
&
The Canton Railway question, it must be} remembered, is one in which Hong-kong is directly interested, for Hong-kong has already advanced a large sum of money to secure the construction, under British auspices, of a line which is of immense importance to that colony from every point of view. China can least of all be allowed to play false to the interests of Hong-kong just when that colony is making great pecuniary sacrifices, as I SIR FREDERICK LUCARD has just explained, in order to assist the Chinese in the suppression of the opium trade, in spite of the fact that the unabated continuance of opium smuggling by the Chinese themselves hardly constitutes an It is well, too,
inspiring proof of reciprocity.
that, at the moment when an influential move- ment is on foot to collect a large sum of money in this country for the promotion of Western educa- tion in China, more especially through the medium of training colleges in connexion with the medical missions, the prior claims of our own colony should not be forgotten. MR. GUNDRY has opportunely reminded us, in the letter which we published from him on Satur- day, that, under the patronage of the GOVERNOR, an excellent scheme is already under considera- has received very
of the Ning-po Railway, has been negotiating under Imperial sanction for the constructiontin at Hong-kong, and of the northern half of the Canton-Han-
kau Railway on terms "involving precisely "similar risks of chaos and maladministration.” What is surprising is that a German syndi- cate, represented by the Doutsch Asiatische Bank, should have been willing to do business on such terms. We are told, however, that the Germans, who have constructed the two northern sections of the Tien-tsin-Yang-tsze Railway, have not met with the same difficulties
generous support, for the creation of a Uni- versity which would go far to fulfil the same purposes as the China Emergency Appeal Committee has in view. It may be argued that there is no reason why both schemes should not proceed on parallel lines; But, at a time when very heavy calls are being made on philanthropic charity at home, enough money is scarcely likely to be forthcoming to place them both on a sound financial basis.
as the British have experienced in the con-Is it not, therefore, a case for the concentra- !
tion rather than the dispersion of effort; and if a choice has to be made, should not the preference reasonably be given to the scheme
struction of the southern section of the same line, and they, no doubt, hope to be equally fortunate in preventing any repetition on the Canton-Han-kau Railway of the scandalous a of which SIR FREDERICK LUCARD bas, we abuses by which the Chinese have wrecked a think, clearly demonstrated the many ad- the Ning-po Railway. It would be interesting to know exactly what are the methods by which the Germans have been able to obtain results so much more satisfactory than our own people have to show in these particular undertakings. Perhaps the explanation is to be found, in part at least, as our Shanghai Correspondent suggests, in the belief, which seems to prevail in China, that Great Britain's benevolent sympathy with Chinese national
vantages? We do not for a moment under- rate the splendid work which has been done by various missionary bodies in China; bus we cannot believe that they possess or could be endowed with as efficient an organiza- tion or such practical cohesion as the proposed University at Hong-kong, nor could they possibly secure the immense benefit for Chinese students of immediate and constant contact with Western minds and Western institutions.