To the Editor of the "Norta-Omina Dany News."
Sir,—In a matter of such vital importance to China and one which is so intimately wrapped up with the material and moral progress of the country, a very grave necessity exists for great caution in criticizing Dr. Sun Yat-sen's schemes without a very careful and full sense of responsibility. This is s country m hich newspaper education is essentially powerful and in which the only way the masses in distant provinces can get at one side or the other of 'a question is by reading the newspapers. One of the most familiar sights in China, even in the small villages, is the man poring over a newspaper. Cuttings from foreign papers are often made and it will be a very great pity if anything is said in the foreign papers which will in the smallest degree hamper the advance of railways in China, Dr. Sun has adopted a very wise and far reaching, statesman-like view of the necessity for railways in China. His travel abroad has convinced him that without the rapid' and effective means of communication embodied in railways, country's advance, administrative regularity, civil and military power is impossible of development, es-ground to be covered is so very great.
It is not necessary to labour this very evident fact and in leaving politics and the government of the country in the very able hands they now rest in and devoting nicself to a task he is particularly fitted for—and that is the moulding of the opinion of the Provinces and people—he is doing a great service to his country. It will take all his time and the money sanctioned and more. It is a matter of common knowledge that the provinces are very difficult to bring into line on this railway question and to be got to see eye to eye with the Central Government; he naturally feels, therefore, that his first move is to convince them that these railways can be built by means which will in no way endanger the sovereign China and which will in the lifetime of a generation enable them to revert to the sole proprietorship of China. His first move, therefore, after getting the Central Government on his side is to start this campaign in the Provinces in order personally to win them over to his side. Parallel with this, getting the newspapers to ex; views clearly and support him is a very wise move, There is no doubt that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.