(2) 'The .4 nierican Coneession.—The concession for the southern section of the great trunk line connecting Hankow with Canton has been grant ed to an American syndicate known as the Ameri can China Development Company. The length of that line measures about a thousand miles, and though the territory through which it passes is not so rich as along the northern section, its two populous termini alone—viz. Hankow and Wu-ehang 071 the one hand, with large iron and steel plants and other important manufactures, and Canton and Hong Kong on the other, with about an equal population, and constituting the most important and richest ports of China— insure a lucrative traffic. Moreover, a great part of the traffic of the northern section will require the Ilankow-Canton line as an outlet for its southern points of destination, unless it takes the roundabout route of the Yang-tse-kiang and the Pacific Ocean.
(3) The British Sphere of Influenee.—The Peking-Tien-tsin-Taku Railway, in the Province of Pe-chi-li, grew out of :t little local railway built with the aid of British capital by f.i flung . Chang from Tientsin to his mines. It was ex tended northwest to Peking, and northeast, through a rich coal district, to the port of Shan Itai-kwan, on the Manchurian border. Thence the road was extended along the Manchurian coast for 113 miles to Kin-chow, at the head of the Liao-tung Gulf. _knother projected extension of 100 miles from Kin-cho• to Sin-min-thun, only 40 miles distant from Alukden, Will bring the road in contact with the Russian railway, re quiring only a branch of that length to effect an actual junction. This extension of British lines in the semi-Russian territory of Manchuria is an offset to the Russian encroachments in the region of English mining concessions in the provinces of Shan-si and Shen-si mentioned above; and, owing to the great rivalry and jeal ousy between the two nations, cannot lint serve as an additional element of friction. Indeed, some irritation occurred in 1899, and, in spite of agreement reached between the two Govern ments, led to a new conflict during the Boxer troubles, when the road was seized by the Rus sians, by whom it was restored to the British only in February, 1900. The road described is and run almost exelusively by means of Chinese employ6s, and is extremely profitable. A more important and less disputed English con cession is the road from Tien-lsin to Chin below Nanking on the Yang-tse-kiang. It ruins parallel to the aneient Imperial canal, which has fallen into disuse, as has everything else de nettling on Chinese officials for maintenance.
This line will pass through a number of large cities in the rich eastern coast region, and will be prolonged as far as Ning-po, in order to take in the rich ports of Nanking, Shanghai, and Hang chow. As it will thus connect the capital of the empire with the south. it may, in conjunction with the 110-ang-ho and Yang-tse-kiang, serve to compete with the other trunk line—the Russian American Peking-Canton road mentioned abovo --for all purposes of foreign and coast trade. Like that other trunk road, the construction and exploitation of this railway is to be divided territorially between two nations—Germany and England—the northern section (passing through Shan-tung, which contains the Kiao-chau dis trict) naturally falling to the Germans, and the southern to the. English. As a compen sation for the Russian Peking - Tlankow con cession, the English have been granted a con cession for the construction of lines in the mill ing regions of Shansi and 110-nan. They will of course utilize this concession in connection with the extensive mining operations which they carry on in those provinces. These roads, how ever, will have to use the Russian-American trunk line as an outlet, except in so far as they shall be able to use the Tin-aug-ho and Yang-tse kiang. A more far-reaching English project is the construction of a railway in southwestern China to comwet the Yang-tse-kiang with the ludo-Burmese line. This line, if built, would practically bring about direct railway communi cation between China and India, and would afford travelers an all-rail route through China from Siberia to India. While not of great commercial importance. it would be extremely valuable to the British, for military reasons. to offset the French lines in that section of the territory, which, through the great Peking-Canton line, will be in easy communication with the Russians in the north.
(4) The French Sphere of Influcnce.—The chief railway interests of the French centre in the extreme south of China, directly west and southwest of Canton. There are to be lines from Hanoi, in Tongking, to Yunnan, in the province of that name, and to Nanning, in Kwang-si, the latter point to he further connected with the Chinese treaty port of Pakhoi. These roads will be built chiefly at the expense of the French Government, which is interested in them for their military importance. In addition to these, French capital is invested in a number of the Russian lines, as indivated above.