Directory_and_Chronicle_1919 — Page 877

CANTON

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West River ports within easy distance of Canton, it being now possible to reach Wuchow in Kwangsi in less than twenty-four hours. That the advantages of rapid communication are appreciated may be gathered from the fact that about three millions of passengers a year are carried on this short line. There is very little freight traffic. The railway has practically killed the passenger traffic by steam launches to Fatshan, but an increase in the railway fares in 1908 revived it to some slight extent. Work on the grand trunk line was started at both ends by the American concessionaires, and a section, about 12 miles long, from Canton, northward to Ko Tong Hü, was rapidly approaching completion, when in October, 1904, on account of friction between the Chinese authorities and the con- structor of the railway, work was entirely stopped. Then it became known that Belgian capitalists had acquired extensive holdings in the American-China Development Com- pany, and, in consequence, a strong agitation was aroused among the Chinese aiming at the cancellation of the concession, and the construction of the line with Chinese capital only. The agitation resulted in the concession being cancelled by the Chinese Govern- ment, who paid to the American-China Development Company a sum of Gold $6,750,000 as compensation, including the cost of the works already completed. As soon as the concession was cancelled a movement was organised by the commercial men of the three provinces which the line will traverse to raise the necessary funds for its construction. A large sum of money was subscribed or promised by Chinese at home and abroad on condition that there would be no official control of the railway. This attitude on the part of the merchants naturally brought them into serious conflict with the provincial authorities, but they successfully urged their claims to freedom from official interference, and construction work has been proceeding on the Kwangtung sec- tion since 1907 under the direction of a Chinese engineer. The first section of the line from Wongsha to Kongtsun, a distance of 17 miles, with three intermediate stations -was opened on July 17th, 1907, and in December, 1908, a further section to Yuntam, 44 miles from Canton, was opened. The railway is now almost completed as far as Shiukuan (Chiuchow), 140 miles from Canton. On the whole, the traffic is satisfactory but the railway cannot be expected to pay well until it has been carried to Hankow or Shanghai, when it should be the most important and most profitable section of the railway system of China. The total length of the line in the Kwangtung Province will be 209 miles. Owing to the difficulties experienced in getting the Chinese shareholders to pay up the calls on their shares as they fell due, the Government resolved at the end of 1908 to raise a foreign loan. A Chinese-owned line from Canton to Whampoa and thence to Amoy has been projected and surveys have been made. The capital of the company is 40 million dollars, but only about one-fifth has been paid up or promised. In accordance with stipulations in the Supplementary Commercial Treaty between Great Britain and China, concluded in 1902, the various barriers or artificial obstructions to navigation in the Canton River were in 1905 partially removed, thus rendering the approaches to Canton safer and easier for shipping, and simplifying work in connection with the pro- posal to improve the accommodation for shipping in the harbour. Extensive wharves and godowns have been erected at Pak Hin Hok on Honam Island, about two miley below Shameen, which enable ocean-going vessels of considerable draught to proceed up to Canton. During recent years large bunding operations have been in progress, along the Front and Back Reaches, and a considerable amount of building has been done on the Shameen, where there are now very few vacant lots. Owing to the disturbed state of China, a British Force of about 300 troops from Hongkong was quartered on the Shameen at the end of 1911, and, with big guns, maxims, barbed wire entanglements, sand bag fortifications, etc., the Shameen had the appearance of an island under siege. Canton remained remarkably quiet when the general rising occurred. In April the Tartar-General had been shot; in May a revolutionary crowd made an assault on the Viceroy's yamen, but stern military measures prevented a general rising. Later in the year the new Tartar-General was assassinated by a bomb as he landed in Canton, and on another occasion an attempt, which proved nearly successful, was made to assassinate Admiral Li, who so effectually checked the rising in May. When the revolution broke out on a grand scale in October, the Viceroy, recognising the hopelessness of resistance with troops honeycombed with sedition, and with a popula- tion unanimously in sympathy with revolution, readily agreed to the transfer of the Government to the revolutionary leaders, and the independence of the province was thus attained without bloodshed. In July, 1913, when a rebellion broke out in several provinces against what was described as the dictatorship of Yuan Shih-kai, the Tutuh, Chan Kwing-ming, proclaimed the independence of the province. The ex-viceroy Shum came down to Canton as the generalissimo of the rebel forces to organise an expedition to proceed north to punish Yuan Shih-kai, but he failed to win over General Lung Chai