Lunghai Railway to Be Extended to Sianfu: Belgian and Five Chinese Banks Concerned Frost Ove OWN ConsesroNvent, Peking, Aug. 12.
Although the agreement between the Banque Belge pour Etranger and a group of Chinese banks to extend the Lunghai Railway to Sianfu stated to be still awaiting final signature and official sanction, there reason to suppose that there will be any hitch in the completion of the negotiations. The loan, understood, is. to be in two instalments, the first issue total-Hing $5,000,000, with another, $7,560,000 when needed. The ing Chinese banks are Bark of China, the Bank of Communications, the Kincheng Banking Corporation, the Salt Industrial Bank, and the China ard South Seas Bank, The inclusion of the last-named bank is interesting, To the observer of economic develfopmients in this country, nothing. has been more hopeful in the last -five years than the activities of Chinese overseas merchants in_indust al and banking enterprises in China. The China and South Seas Bank is one of the youngest and at the same time the stronges of these enterprises, Already" it has a paid-up capital of five mil-Von dollars, and is now calling up another two and a half millions.
It is to be"hoped that the Lung-hat Railway will be pushed through into Shensi province without delay. The extension to Shenchow, the present western torminal in Honan provineg, was reached some months ago, and it brought the railway within about 60 miles of the border. With its entry into Shensi territory, the line will introduce the iron road to one of the richest provinces in the country, and will break up the isolation which has hitherto blocked economic intercourse with Its eight oF nine million people.
Shensi's Isolation, Despite its vast agricultural wealth sind a purchasing power unimpaired by floods and only ocsionally disturbed by drought, Shensi has been, mote oF less out the is vid Tungku:
ach Loyang, gucds ave consigned fon Hankow to Chengchow by the Peking-Hankow Railway, thence te Shenchow along the Lunghai Ruilwas, the remaining distance to the vince being aceither by eountry cart or pack mule. The Han river and its tributaries are aleo used, but this method involves a Tong' trail over the hills south of Sash means of transport long and costly, and it is said that it is cheaper for the Hankow flour mills to import wheat from the Pacific coast of America than to bring wheat down from the Weipeh region of Shensi province, which is one of the granaries of northern China. Notwithstanding the long journey across the Pacific the Yangtze, Hankow finds American or Canadian wheat ssportation th heat of Shensi—a lesson in of the.urgent need for communieations in China.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.