Most of the land in the neighbourhood of Taonan belonged to the Mongol Prince, Wu Tai, who on defeat of his troops fied to Outer Mongolia. Some of it was already under cultivation, having been rented to Chinese agriculturists. The Mongolians themselves do not care for this occupation, preferring a nomadic life. Through confiscaof all Wu Tai's lands the jinese Government finds itself the possessor of large tracks of rich arable soil, which no doubt will soon be entirely cultivated by Chinese farmers.
There is a great future for this district, of which Taoran is the central point, and no doubt the officials will not take a long time to find out the necessity of a railway to link up with the main lines, the cart routes at present being one to Petuna, lying nearly 300 li to the ast. another running south-east to Changchun, some 600 1i distant, and the main north road which stretches frit Hsinmingtan in the south to Tsitsihar in the north, and is over 1,200 Ji in length.
The question as to which route the new railway line will follow a delicate one, fo consider all this south of Taonan as influence, and will jemand participation in the con struction of the new Tine,—Most UN probably they will want it under joint' management, though they may be satisfied as with the Changchun-Kirin Railway to have merely a Japanese Engineer-in-Chief and Chief Accountant.
South Manchurian Rivalry, This being the case, the best route is hardly likely to be decided upon, namely, from Taonan to Fakumen and from there to link up with the Mukden-Peking line, From a purely Chinese point of view this would prove the most profitable in every way, as it would not only pass through good cultivable land but shorten transport of produce destined either for Tientsin or for export from Chinese rts, The Japanese, in order that this new line may act as a feeder to the South Manchurian Railway main line, will bring pressure to bear that one of the terminal pointe shall be a town along the South Manchurian Railway, and the further north the better it will ne or the Japanese, for it means more freight for their main line. The terminus which wil] eventually be decided upon will be somewhere between Kaiyuan and Changchun, for te carry it further south or to have at Mukden, would not at all suit Jay anese books.
With the construction of this <uthern line decided upon, it is ly it will be extended—north-ards into the Russian sphere of influence and eventually link with the Chinese Eastern Railway at the jumping-off point for Tsitr, for the capital of Belling. Kiang province lies some way back from the main line, a narrow-gauge Chinese owned railway connecting the city with the Russian railway tlement.
Buss'a's Point of View.
Whether the Russian Government will agree to the construction of the Taonan-Tsitsihar line, even witl. joint financing and nanagement, is at the present moment a very difficult question to answer, fcr unlike railways from points like Hulan, Argun, Ninguta, which will link up with the Chinese East-eyn trunk line and ea act as feeders tit, this northern line from Tao-nar, would rather tend to take away earnings from the Chinese Eastern Railway. for Manchurian and Mon. colian products could be—more economically sent to southern cities by this new line which will join up with the South Manchuria Railway.
As the Chinese Eastern Railway Ca". authorities are fully alive to the possibilities of Eastern Inner Mon colin, their Commercial Department having covered all this ground and collected @ mass of informa. tion and statistics, it is quite possible that, in order not to lose getting a share of the new trade that will spring up in the Taonan di Original from
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.