(c) CHIHLI RIVER CONSER-
VANCY.
The
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Wa
than eight million dollars. need not here go into details of the works required to afford reasonable security from flood and drought to a population of some thirty-four millions. But we suggest that of all conservancy projects in China the improvement of the Chiħli River system is at the moment the most urgent. And we propose for that purpose a loan of $25,000,000, secured, as to amortization and interest, on the Customs revenues earmarked for the service of the
British portion of the Boxer In- demnity.
A loan of this sum at
amor.
7 per cent, interest, with amortiza- tion spread over a term of twenty years, would cost, in the aggregate, $43,375,000 ($25,000,000 tization, and $18,375,000 for in- terest). We have suggested that all charges in connection with this loan should be met from the
Customs revenues, but that is not
No public work in China can be considered more urgent than the improvement of the Chihli River system. Disastrous floods in 1917 and 1924 have caused losees which in the aggregate must amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. An enormous area in Chihli is still under water, and unless the exten. sive damage done to dykes and embankments during last year's floods can be repaired during the coming Spring, Tientsin will have uo defences against floods other than the outer Dyke system. The Yungtingho has been breached in four places South-west of Peking, and it is estimated that $2,500,000 will be required to repair this damage alone, A large section of the right bank of the Tachingh has been washed away, and there
because we take the view that the are also several breaches in the
project would not be self-support- right bank of the Hsi Ho. General Report of the Commissioning. As a matter of fact it ought to be quite possible, by the im- for the Improvement of the Chibli River System issued in September position of a small land-tax, to re- pay the loan within ten years, 1924 estimated that an expenditure of $15,500,000 would be required Mr. M. T. Liang, Chairman of the International Famine Relief Com. for works which it deemed urgent.
mission suggests that money used These works included a new chan-
for conservancy work should he nel to the sea, south of Tientsin, but did not include several other applied on the basis of loans re- important undertakings which, payable by the districts that have
been benefited. We have suggested though less urgent, are necessary
that instead of repaying the to effect a permanent improvement
$25.000.000 loan. its service in the Chihli drainage system.
should be left to the Customs, in With the exception of Szechwan
order that the funds available for and Kwangtung. Chihli has larger population than any of the Chinese Provinces. It has a fer- tile soil, the production of which, however, is restricted by recurring floods and droughts. A scheme was put forward some months ago for the digging of a channel South of Tientsin by famine labour, the funds being provided by the pro- posed Customs Famine Relief surtax. This surtax has never been imposed, and it is doubtful whe ther the excavation required could have been done by famine-relief labour, in any case. The channel would require excavation to depth of from five feet to twenty feet, over a length of seventy kilo metres, and, unless incessant pumping were provided for, it would be necessary to use dredgers over a considerable portion of the selected route. Even if two-thirds of the work could have been done by famine labour which is not likely to be available during the Spring the cost of the proposed channel would not be much less
A
EL
repayment, locally, may be used to develop Conservancy work in Chih. li or other parts of China To avoid any suggestion that Chibli is specially favoured it might be well to earmark the local repay- ments of the proposed loan, for Conservancy work in Kwangtung, or in the Hwai River Basin, the idea being to turn the money over and establish a definite and sub-
stantial source of revenue for future conservaney work, in what- ever province it may be urgently required.
The scheme we have put forward would require the following pay- ments, spread over twenty years, from the Customs:
(a) Educational Grants $ 85,081,519 (b) Canton-Hankow Rail-
way (Interest only) (e) Chibli River Con.
servancy
88,074,500
49,375,000
Total
$111,581,018
IV.
THE British Government has decided to remit its remaining share of the Boxer Indemnity for purposes "mutually beneficial" to We China and Great Britain, have in previous articles, put for ward a scheme which provides: for liberal subsidies to Higher Educational Institutions under British auspices; for the comple- tion of the most important of China's trunk railways; for a net- work of macadamized Toads in three provinces with an aggregate population of over ninety-two mil- lions; and for the carrying out of a conservancy project which at a moderate estimate will save the people of North Chuna losses of hundreds of millions of dollars
each decade, and provide a recur- ring fund for such enterprises in other parts of China. In formul- ating our proposals we have had
ar
in mind what would be most bene- ficial to China, rather than the
commercial securing of any political advantage for Great Bri- tain, believing that any scheme which tends to increase China's prosperity will ultimately prove beneficial to the British Empire
also.
We propose in our conclud ing article, briefly to set forth the arguments in favour of some such project as that which we have put forward.
The British Chambers of Com- merce, in China, following the American precedent, have been inclined to support the allocation of the entire indemnity to educa tional purposes. It is pertinent, therefore, to inquire whether the allocation of the remitted portion of the American Indemnity to education has been an unqualified success, There are many compet- ent observers who are by no means convinced that it has. When, last year, the proposal to remit the balance of the American Indemnity was before Congress, Mr. John V. A. MacMurray. Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs of the Department of State, expressed his personal preference "for the idea of using this for industrial work, because so much is now be ing undertaken in education, and possibly there is room in the field of industrial development. I, for my part, should not feel unhappy if, for instance, they (ie, the Chinese) wanted to double-track a railroad, or improve a harbour, or use the funds for some concrete industrial purpose like that. But 1 feel that this is essentially a matter for the Chinese themselves
7
to determine." Though believing that the education of Chinese on American lines was bound
Lo
produce results of the most hope- ful sort for the regeneration of China, Mr. MacMurray stated that "it is only fair to say in
pass ing that there is some ground for eriticism, that there has been a degree of disappointment in the thus far worked out." way the educational scheme has Another American, with considerable ex- perience in China. Mr. Roger S. Greene of the Rockefeller founda- tion, is on record as stating that "It would seem highly desirable that in any future extension of Western learning in China a de- termined effort, should be made to secure greater unity, so that in- stead of each group of students getting all its foreign ideas and methods through one foreign na tonality, the whole student body may secure what is best from all OTT the world."' Mr. Julean Arnold, American Commercial Attaché, in an address to the stud- ents of the Peking School of Commerce, last year, asked:
"How many students in the col- leges of this great continental country, in their studies in ma- thematics and economics, concern themselves with the study of the comparative costs of transporta tion, by human beasts of burden, pack animals, wheelbarrows, carts, motor vehicles and railways? This is your country's greatest present day problem. China needs rail- ways today more than she does With economic trans- colleges. portation, the people of China need no longer worry about securing funds for constructing and main- taining educational institutions. Are the students of China to-day aware of the fact that recurring famines in this country are a sad comment upon the mentality of the nation in its failure to apply th education of the nation to the fundamental problems of the country?"
A prominent Chinese, who urg- ed that the American indemnity should be used to promote Chinese
and not American-education, alleged that "Tsing Hua prepares young Chinese to go abroad, but it does not prepare young Chinese to be better Chinese." Looking at the results of education on Bri tish lines in India, and in Egypt, can it seriously be argued that it has made for greater content, or for more friendly feelings towards Great Britain? Is it really desir- able that Great Britain should
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