ing to Hankow; the Americans obtained a concession for a
Hankow-Canton railway, which, however, has only been constructed as far
as Changsha. Russia built the Manchurian Railway, connecting Peking with
the Siberian Railway and with Europe. Germany built the Shantung
Railway, from Tsingtau to Tsinanfu. The French built a railway in the
south. England sought to obtain a monopoly of the railways in the
Yangtze valley. All these railways were to be owned by foreigners and
managed by foreign officials of the respective countries which had
obtained the concessions. The Boxer rising, however, made Europe aware
that some caution was needed if the Chinese were not to be exasperated
beyond endurance. After this, ownership of new railways was left to the
Chinese Government, but with so much foreign control as to rob it of
most of its value. By this time, Chinese public opinion had come to
realize that there must be railways in China, and that the real problem
was how to keep them under Chinese control. In 1908, the Tientsin-Pukow
line and the Shanghai-Hangchow line were sanctioned, to be built by the
help of foreign loans, but with all the administrative control in the
hands of the Chinese Government. At the same time, the Peking-Hankow
line was bought back by the Government, and the Peking-Kalgan line was
constructed by the Chinese without foreign financial assistance. Of the
big main lines of China, this left not much foreign control outside the
Manchurian Railway (Chinese Eastern Railway) and the Shantung Railway.
The first of these is mainly under foreign control and must now be
regarded as permanently lost, until such time as China becomes strong
enough to defeat Japan in war; and the whole of Manchuria has come more
or less under Japanese control. But the Shantung Railway, by the
agreement reached at Washington, is to be bought back by China--five
years hence, if all goes well. Thus, except in regions practically lost
to China, the Chinese now have control of all their more important
railways, or will have before long. This is a very hopeful feature of
the situation, and a distinct credit to Chinese sagacity.

Putnam Weale (Mr. Lennox Simpson) strongly urges--quite rightly, as I
think--the great importance of nationalizing _all_ Chinese railways. At
Washington recently, he helped to secure the Shantung Railway award, and
to concentrate attention on the railway as the main issue. Writing early
in 1919, he said[100]:--