25rd July.
THE recent telegraphic news that the American-China Development Company had sold its interest in the Hankow-Canton railroad to a Belgian Syndicate did not impress worthy of credence, and we are glad to be confirmed in that belief. The managing engineer, with a full staff, has been in Shanghai for several weeks, and we are informed that the building of the road by the American Company will begin at an early day. Large quantities of material have already arrived from America, and the concession to the American Company was fully confirmed by an Edict issued on the 12th instant. The proposed line will be the longest and most important yet undertaken in China, and as the Americans are most skillful in the construction of railroads, there is no doubt that the Hankow-Canton line will be a model of completeness when finished. Railroads will prove the greatest civilising agencies that can be introduced into China, as they have in all other countries where operated. When the vast Chinese Empire is interlaced with railroads the disturbances which too often unhinge markets will be at an end, and the Central Government will be enabled to relieve famines with a quickness that will refect the poor in every corner of hina, Nothing will abolish the likin stations sooner than railroads.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.