June 21, 1909.]
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA.
PAPER BY MR. A. J. BARRY.
(From our London Correspondent).
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An important paper on Railway Develop- ment in China" was read on Wednesday evening (May 19) at the Royal Society of Arts by Mr. Arthur John Barry M.I.C.E. The occasion was the twentieth ordinary meeting, and the chair was taken by Sir John Wolfe Barry K.C.B., F.R.S. Vice-President of the Society. There was a good attendance.
In the course of a lengthy and interesting paper Mr BARRY said:-During the last ten years I have been closely connected with railway development in China, and, visiting the country as I do at short intervals, I may claim to have had favourable opportunities of watching the recent changes in the attitude of the Chinese towards railways. It has appeared to me that, from a frame of mind which led them to regard rail- ways rather as a regrettable necessity, especially regrettable inasmuch as a measure of foreign assistance and control was neccessary, the Chinese have gradually come to realise that the development of their railway system is a matter of prime importance to their country.
After dealing with the evolution of the railway in China and the history of the old Shanghai-Woosung line, Mr. Barry stated that if official, opposition was now
a matter of history, popular superstition still existed.
Mr. Barry sketched the condition of affairs preceding the 1894 war, and detailed the events that followed. He referred fully to the position taken up by France, Germany, and Russia on the question of railway expansion, and said in due time these various political aspirations took concrete form, and as a result the following railways came into being :-
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First, the Russian railway, called the Eastern Chinese Railway, from the station on the Siberian railway called Manchourie, through Tsitsihar and Harbin to Vladivostock, with a branch from Harbin to Yingkow, Port Arthur, and Talienwan.
Secondly, in the south, the French projected the railway from Lao-kai to Yunnan, which it is expected will be completed next year.
Thirdly, the German railway in Shantung between Kiao-chau and Chinan Fu.
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240,000,000 India can at least boast of about 30,000 miles of railway, whilst China, with a population greater by, perhaps nearly 100,000,000, can at present show about 5,000 miles of railway only. Before Chinese railway development can compare with that of India another 30,000 miles or so will have to be built at a cost of say over £200,000,000 sterling.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. • Hongkong colony are constructing to complete | the connection between Hongkong and Canton. In the future, if all goes well, by means of this railway Hongkong and Canton will be put in direct railway communication with Hankow, the future Clapham Junction of the great trunk lines of China, and thence with Peking itself, so that before many years it should be possible to take a railway ticket at Victoria Station to Hongkong via Berlin, Moscow, Siberia, Peking and Hankow.
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Whether railways should be constructed by private enterprise in China, or whether the principle of State ownership should be univer The amount of the loan is £1,500,000, and sally adopted, is perhaps, a matter of opinion. although rather serious delays in getting On this matter I think Mr. Kent puts it accu- possession of the necessary land have in-rately when he says that State ownership is not volved unnecessary expenditure. the railway only the best for China, but the only possible is likely to be completed for the amount of the system compatible with success. Not only has loan, or at any rate very nearly so.
experience so far demonstrated that Chinese When, after the signature of the final agree.railway companies are a mistake, but it would ment for the construction of the Canton-Kowloon Railway negotiations were commenced in con- nection with the final agreement for the Tientsin Pukow Railway loan, the Chinese Government demanded still further concessions from the financiers.
They agreed that the chief engineer should sisted that he should be appointed by them be an experienced European, but they in
selves, subject to reasonable approval, and that he should be under the orders of the Chinese managing director.
They wou d not consent to the appointment of a European accountant, and retain in their own hands complete control of the funds derived from the loan, subject only to the conditions that loan funds should be drawn upon on a requisition signed by the Chinese managing director, who is to certify for what the money is required. The bond-holders have the right to send a representative to examine the Chinese accounts at intervals.
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Mr. Barry then dealt with the present com. plicated state of affairs and said:-So far as the bondholder is concerned, inasmuch the Chinese Government have guaranteed his in. terest whether the railway pays or not it does not perhaps much matter whether the money lent is being wasted, except that it is pretty certain that if the Chinese Government were to become responsible for many more railways of this kind they will find themselves unable to pay; I think, however, there is little doubt that the Chinese shareholders in the local com- panies may make up their minds to it that they have lost their money; in fact. I believe that many of them have made up their minds to this already.
This group of railways owes its origin to political rather than commercial aspirations, They are to all intents and purposes the pro-
The Chinese Government suffer most from perty of the three countries named, and to them this unfortunate state of affairs-not only is must now be added Japan, who is the proprietor money for which they are responsible being of the South Manchurian Railway. China has wasted, but the principle of State ownership for little or no control over them; they are con-all railways, so necessary for the best interests cessions in the true sense of the word.
of China, is being violated; and lastly, but very In the case of the remaining railways, the far from least, the Chinese Government have sovereign rights of China are not impaired and been forced by uninformed and irresponsible although the instruments under which the provincial clamour into the position of having capital has been raised are frequently called | failed to uphold their reputation for reliability concessions, the word a misnomer as applied in the observance of their agreement-a reputa- to them. Mr. Barry then referred to the Pekin- tion so difficult to establish, so easy to lose. Hankow, Hankow-Canton and the Shanghai- Nanking railway, and coming to the Canton- Kowloon railway he said:
Referring to the present condition of affairs in connection with the Hankow-Canton Line, Mr. Barry said:-There has been so much said and written lately, on this subject, that a compromise with the Germans and other nationalities con cerned, appears to have been arrived at which, at any rate, secures British interests so far as the
at the expense of some of the recognised British nterests in connection with the projected Hankow-Chengtu Railway. This compromise is perhaps likely to be hailed with chastened enthusiasm by a large number of people in this country, who are interested in China, but taking into consideration all the complicated and rather delicate circumstances of the case, it will probably be regarded by the majority as a reasonable solution of a difficult problem.
In the case of the Canton-Kowloon Railway the Chinese insisted on the following modifica tions of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway terms. Instead the railway being managed by a Board of Control on which the bondholders | Hankow-Canton Railway is concerned, even if are represented, a Chinese managing-director was substituted, in whose hands the management of the railway is vested both before and after construction. Instead of the chief engineer being appointed by the representatives of the bondholders, he was to be nominated by them subject to the approval of the Chinese. If stead of the direction of the work of construc- tion and the subsequent management of the railway being in the hands of the chief engineer, his functions on the Canton-Kowloon Railway are limited to those of adviser to the managing director, but it was agreed that no payments may be made from the loan funds except on re- quisitions countersigned by the chief engineer.
The Canton-Kowloon Railway is a very im- portant line, 100 miles in length. It starts at Canten, the great commercial centre of South China, and terminates at the frontier of the That the Chinese railway system is in its British leased territory of Kowloon by a infancy goes without saying. The railway junction with a very expensive and heavy system of India, for example, is only partially section of railway 20 miles long that the 'developed, but with a population of about
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As to the future, I will not be guilty of the rashness of attempting to prophesy. We may however, at least note the principal data upon which the problem of the future is based. It is certain that China is fully alive to the advan- tages of railways and is now as anxious to build them as at first she was opposed to their construction.
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also be impossible to raise any large amount of capital by means of private companies in China. Private companies, too, would not have the necessary power and authority behind them which only the Government itself possesses.
At present there are very low Chinese qualified railway officers. There are a certain example Mr. Jeme, who built the Kalgan line, number of able Chinese engineers no doubt-for
and Mr. Wang, who is building the southern section of the Hankow-Canton Railway, but for many years to come there will not be enough men such as these to go round. In an engineer, experience is even more important than theory, and reliable engineers take years to train.
There is little doubt, therefore, that for some time to come China will have to engage engi- neers from abroad to meet her requirements, and the same remarks apply to the senior officers of other railway departments. There is nothing derogatory to Chinese dignity in this. China has always been loyally served by the foreigners whom she has employed, and always will be. Their knowledge and experience in their own spheres have been, and will be, of the greatest benefit to her in every way; but if China is to be able to borrow the money she requires abroad, on the best terms, it will be necessary to cultivate the confidence of the foreign investor, a confidence which events recently have been calculated to shake.
What I venture to think is required is a strong and capable Railway Department or Board in Pekin, so constituted as to command the confidence of the foreign investor, and strong enough to command respect everywhere in China itself. The present Board of Com- munications falls short of this. Such a depart- ment would have its staff of expert assistants and inspectors, both Chinese and foreign, and keep in touch with the administration of each railway, who would be responsible to the Board. The net earnings of all railways after payment of the cost of maintenance and renewals would be paid to the Government Railway Depart- ment-the principles of its organisation might be somewhat similar to those of the Imperial Maritime Customs. A definite policy and a definite programme of railway construction should be laid down. To build up the revenues of the Board the best paying railways should be constructed first. The revenues and expenditure of the Board should be published. In time I think a Board so constituted would be able to raise loans on its general revenues, and pay off the various loans for the service of which the " revenues of different existing railways are now hypothecated. To begin with, the Board ought to be able to show as revenus the surplus earnings of the Imperial railway of North China and of the Pekin-Hankow line, which (from informa- tion from the Chinese sources, so far as the latter railway is concerned) amount, when taken together, to about £800,000.
The CHAIRMAN observed that in listening to the lecturer-who was his nephew-with whom he had been associated in much, of his Chinese work, he thought they would recognise that they had been listening to a man who knew his subject very throughly. It was a matter of great satisfaction to that Society that Mr. Barry had been able to come there and give them a general and detailed view of the great subject of railway communication in China. They must all recognise that this was one of the most important matters which lay before them in the future. Before them was the question of the opening up of China to modern and western ideas in a way in which the rail- way alone could effect that purpose. It
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