5
4
consortium group. In 1919, this bank distributed net profits to the amount of Other British banks $10,000,000, or nearly £2,000,000 at the current rate.
in China are the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China and the Mercantile Bank of India (see Appendix VIII). The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and the Chartered Bank issue a currency of bank notes.
X-Boxer Indemnity.
Out of an original total of £67,500,000, Great Britain's share was £7,593,081. Including interest, the total still due to Great Britain (payment to finish in 1945) is £11,186,547.
XI.-Loans.
Reference to Appendix IX will show that Great Britain is interested solely or jointly in £21,956,500 of China's war indemnity debt, in £30,185,000 of the railway debt and in £32.858,336 of the general debt. These sums cover a large proportion (between one-half and three-quarters) of the total foreign indebtedness of China.
XII-Railways.
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The China Annual Report of 1919 states, Our position in the railway question is a very strong one." Appendix IV shows that out of 6,835 miles of rail- way operating in China, Great Britain has financed and constructed 825 miles; and is financially interested in 1,958 miles more. Furthermore, we hold concessions or are in course of negotiations for a further 2,500 miles. The report quoted above states:-
If the London market is not disposed to make an effort to finance these projects a solution will have to be found, and found soon, by putting into prac- tice the much-talked-of principle of Anglo-American co-operation. The British and American policy in China is one and the same, and though our manufac- turers of railway material will be the users in a field which was practically their own under our loan agreements, it is not reasonable (nor ultimately sound from the point of view of British interests) that a bankrupt Europe should retard the development of China when American capital could be obtained. China has suffered enough in the past from the political manoeuvres of the Powers, and so, Unless the consortium can come into incidentally, has British trade action quickly, it would be better to abandon its concerted aims, and to allow our financial interests to make a completely new start with the Americans alone. Not more Even the addition of the French would prove a complication.
than two or three Powers can profitably be associated in railway construction in China. A larger number results in much interesting discussion in London or Paris and an immense telegraphic correspondence, but seldom or never in any advance of railway construction. British trade requires at least 20,000 miles of railway within the next few years and is not disposed to wait indefinitely for the formation of an unwieldy and probably unworkable consortium to obtain its object."
XIII Industrial Concerns.
Appendix gives a list of British industrial concerns in Hong Kong and China, of which twenty-eight are in Hong Kong, forty-four in Shanghai, twenty-four in Tien-tsin, ten in Hankow and twenty-three in other cities. The dockyards, sugar refineries, cement works, rope works and works of public utility (gas, electricity, light, tramways, waterworks, &c.) at Hong Kong are a valuable asset to the British position in China, and a model for the Chinese to emulate. So are the cotton mills As is in Shanghai, of which British interests control seven and Japanese three. only right and natural, our principal competitors in the development of China's industries will be the Chinese themselves. They already own thirty-five cotton mills in China, and have seventeen new mills in course of erection. Rice mills, bean mills, flour mills and silk factories are almost all in Chinese hands. The principal iron foundries are either Japanese-owned (as Penhsifu and Anshantien in Manchuria) or Japanese-controlled (as the Hanychping Works at Hankow). British companies own two important shipbuilding works in Shanghai; and British industrial enter- prise in China should be capable of expansion especially in the direction of joint Sino-British enterprises.
XIV. Wireless.
The British Marconi Company last year signed a scries of three agreements with the Chinese Government: (1) to supply the Chinese War Office with wireless telephones for ten years; (2) to erect a chain of wireless stations between Peking and Kashgar, with a loan of £600,000; (3) to form a Sino-British "National Wireless Telegraph Company for a factory for wireless apparatus, with exclusive rights for twenty years.
XV-A ciation.
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Six large passenger-carrying machines and two avros have been purchased by the Chinese Government from the Handley Page Company, and a contract has been signed with Messrs. Vickers for the supply of one hundred Vickers-Vimy aeroplanes (with a loan of £1,800,000). A British Royal Air Force officer has been engaged as aviation adviser to the Chinese Government.
XVI. Cables.
The Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company (British) is one of the principal cable companies operating in China. Its rival and associate is the Great Northern Telegraph Company (Danish), with which it shares a special concession from the Chinese Government; and the line of the Commercial Pacific Company (American) touches China at Shanghai. There are German cables (Deutsch-Nederlandisch-Telegraphen Gesellschaft), whose future has not yet been disposed of. The chief line to Japan (Shanghai-Nagasaki) is controlled by the Danish Company, but the Japanese Government have the right to lay another line of their own. The Japanese own a cable between Sasebo (Japan) and Dairen, and between Dairen and Chefoo.
XVII.—Mining.
Of the 12,868,000 tons of coal produced in China, the following were produced by Sino-British firms:-
Kailan Mining Administration (Chihli) Fu-chung Corporation (Honan)... Mentoukou mines
Tons.
4,000,000
1,250,000
Nil
5,250,000
The other principal modern coal mines are the Japanese-owned, or Japanese- controlled mines in Manchuria, Shantung and Kiangsi, which produce 5,310,000 tons. Chinese mines worked by natural methods are estimated to produce 10,000,000 tons. The Kailan Administration has concluded an agreement for exploitation of the Tatung coalfields in North Shansi; and is negotiating for an iron concession in the Yang-tsze Valley. The principal iron mines (Manchuria and the Hanyelping deposits) are controlled by the Japanese. British and American companies are negotiating for gold concessions (co-operative), and an American company has con- cluded a preliminary agreement for the exploitation of mineral resources in Yunnan. XVIII. Co-operative Enterprises.
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The China Annual Report," 1919, says :—
There has been a strong movement in favour of co-operative enterprise between Chinese and foreign business men during recent years. From the point of view of the foreigner in China co-operation has practical advantages. Under treaty their residence and activities are confined to the treaty ports. They can- not hold land or any other security in the great interior so long as they are operating as foreign firms. Co-operative enterprise was first tried in connection with mining, and after it had been realised that the day of the concession' had passed in China."
Notable Anglo Chinese enterprises are:
The Kailan Mining Administration, 1912.
The Fuchung Corporation, 1915.
The Chinese National Wireless Company (Limited), 1919.
The Chinese Mining Corporation (Limited), 1919.
The Chinese-British Trade Corporation, 1919,
There are also Sino-Japanese, Sino-American, and Sino-French concerns.
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