London, Jan. 22.
At a dinner given in honour of Mr. Sidney Mayers, Peking representative of the British and Chinese Corporation, Ld., and Chinese Central Railways, Ld., whois shortly returning to Peking, Sir Charles Addis, manager of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, London, described the new Chinese Consortium as in effect an offer to help China out of her present difficulties and to cooperate with China with a view to establishing a strong stable Central Government. He emphasized that each Power. in the Consortium had expressly disclaimed the intention of seeking any separate national advantages, while it was no part of the Consortium to interfere or restrict private enterprise. He declared that at present, the Consortium's policy was necessarily a railway policy.
Mr. Mayers pointed out that the Consortium's ultimate aim, namely unification of all railways under one uniform system, would not be fulfilled until the Chinese Government had adopted the principles whereby new lines should be divested entirely of the character of concessions granted to any particular nationality and should be administered free of interference on the part of local authorities, while their surplus revenues should be devoted to the further development of a co-ordinated railway system.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.