Directory_and_Chronicle_1915 — Page 747

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CHINA

"Balance of Trade.-The value of imports exceeded that of exports by 167 million taels. The three years 1905-07 afforded examples of similar or greater disparity, but in the intervening period the debtor balance had been reduced in the most visible way by the increase of exports. In 1909 the excess of imports was only 79 million taels, and in 1912 it was 103 million taels. The trade of 1913 thus presents a greatly increased defici to be accounted for indirectly."

RAILWAYS

Although China is traversed in all directions by roads, they are usually mere tracks, or at best footpaths, along which the transport of goods is a tedious and difficult undertaking. It was owing to the imperfect means of communication that such a fearful mortality attended the famines in Shansi, Honan, and Shantung, as well as the famine in Kiangsi in 1903, when the scarcity of food was so great that in numberless instances men even publicly sold their wives and children when powerless to meet the responsibility for feeding them.

The enormous mineral wealth of Shansi is practically non-existent for the same reason. A vast internal trade is, however, carried on over the roads, and by means of numerous canals and navigable rivers. The most populous part of China is singularly well adapted for the construction of a network of railways, and a first attempt to introduce them into the country was made in 1876, when a line from Shanghai to Woosung, ten miles in length, was constructed by an English company. The little rail- way was subsequently purchased by the Chinese Government and closed by them on the 21st October, 1877. Since that time the principle of railways has been fully accepted. The railway from Shanghai to Woosung was re-opened in 1898, as forming part of a line to Soochow, which the provincial authorities had obtained permis- sion of the Throne to construct. A tramway, a few miles in length, begun in 1881 to carry coal from the Kaiping coal mines, near Tongshan, to the canal bank, has been extended to Tientsin and Taku ou the one hand, and to Kin- chow and Newchwang on the Gulf of Liao-tung on the other. This road was only completed in the early part of 1900, and during the summer months was, between Kinchow and Newchwang, largely destroyed by the Chinese so as to preclude the advance of Russian forces on Peking via Manchuria. A line from Peking to Tientsin was opened in 1897, the Peking terminus being at Machiapu, a point two miles from the Tartar city, whence a short electric line connects it with one of the principal gates; the traffic developed so rapidly that in 1898-9 the line had to be doubled. From Lukouchiao (or Marco Polo's Bridge) a line of about eighty miles in length has been constructed southward to Paotingfu, the capital of the province of Chihli; this line, in October, 1899, was handed over by the British con- structors to the Belgian Syndicate as an integral factor in the great trans-continental line from Peking to Hankow. These lines were all more or less deliberately and in some parts completely destroyed by the Chinese during 1990. The Railways, as foreign innovations, were particularly hateful to the Boxers, who in many cases attacked the lines with a fury as intense as it was insensate: burning the stations, destroying bridges, firing the sleepers and carrying off the metals. Later on, track destruction was a strong feature of the strategy of the Imperial troops, and from their point of view, wisely so. It was the cutting of the Railway that was the sole cause of Admiral Seymour's failure in his gallant attempt to rescue the Legations. All the lines in North China were attacked and badly cut. The terminus at Peking has been brought inside the Chinese City and is at the Chien Men or Southern Gate of the Manchu City. A branch line has been made from this terminus to Tung Chow, the head of the water- ways; and both the French and Germans have pushed on the trunk lines being built under their exclusive auspices in Chihli, Honan, and in Shantung, respectively. Railway vandalism was the first evidence of the savagery and magnitude of the Boxer sedition. It is significant that the Imperial Government was so inert in protecting its own property.

The following list of railways, open and under construction, shows the progress which has been made in little more than ten years in improving communications in China:- 1. Chinese Eastern Railway (Tung Ching), 5-foot gauge. Kuanchengtzu to Harbin and thence east and west to the Russian frontier, 1,077 miles. Under Russian control. 2. Tsitsihar Light Railway (Ang-ang-chi), metre gauge. Connecting Tsitsihar with the Chinese Eastern Railway at Ang-ang-ki, 17 miles. Opened August, 1909. Constructed by a British engineer.

3. South Manchurian Railway. Under Japanese control. Main line: Dairen (Dalny) to Kuanchengtzu (14 miles beyond Changchun), 439 miles; double line. Branches: (1)