LTHOUGH the first railway was laid down in China in 1876, railway progress has been ex-4 ceedingly slow, not quite 7,000 miles of road having been constructed in a country the area of which is over four million square miles. Many factors _enter into the inability of the Chinese Government or private capital to develop the comprehensive railway programme which has been in the minds of engineers for many years, the principal one being the which has made China an_ unfavourable political uncertainty of the past 14 years,
field for the investment of foreign capital and which therefore prevents foreign or even domestic investments in the proposed {new railway lines. In this connexion, the deterioration of the existing lines owing to military abuses of them, which will be dealt with more fully, must be taken into consideration.
The first two railways, that between Shanghai and Woosung, which was torn up and sent to Formosa, and that to the Tongshan Mines, were built for economic reasons. Most of the subsequent railways were laid down as a result of the "Battle for Concessions" and were: undoubtedly affected by the political spheres of me fluence which the lending nations or combinations of lending nations had mapped out amongst themselves, Nevertheless, there can be no doubt even in the minds of those most opposed to foreign influence in China, that such lines as the Tientsin-Pukow Line, the Peking-Mukden line, or the Kinhan Line, until their effectiveness was destroyed by military abuses, were of no importance politically to their foreign financiers and builders but that they developed the country through which they passed and that much of the economic as well as social progress of central and northern China has been due to better means of communications, Unity of Control first, each line was managed individually but since the founding of the Republic, definite progress has been made toward the unifying of the railway system of China, As early ax 1913, under the management of Messrs. Yeh Kung-cho and C. C, Wang, plans were made for uniform accounts and statisicts on the Government railways, irrespective of the foreign management arising out of the foreign investments in the line. Progress in this particular field was rapidly being made, but since 1924 the Ministry of Communications and the railway have suffered from military interference and 1 everything is in abeyance pending a complete restoration of the lines to the railway officials. The real problem of unification of the railway services was, to standardize equipment and materials, which to a large extent was achieved between 1917 and 1921, although it was not possible altogether to prevent individual arrangements on the privately-owned lines, The standards worked out by the Commission on Railway Technics was a standard ear of 40-ton capacity, both open and closed type, with wheels of 83 inches diameter. "Minimum side and overhead clearances have been agreed upon, according to a report in the "China Year Book." Other subjects on which the technical experts of the Ministry are working are standard rail's sections, standard cross sections of track, maximum tolerance for {coupler heights, etc.
During the past year, the Chinese authorities of Manchuria built the Taonan-Tstsihar Railway, nearly two-thirds of which is now ready for traffic. This line was built by the South-Manchuria Railway, which acted as contractor for the Chinese Government. The building of this line has led to political difficulties in Manchuria as Soviet Russia regards this as a strategic railway and plans to build similar startegie lines. in north Manchuria and Mongélin to counteract its value. The completion of the Lunhai Railway from Hsuchowfu to Haichow was another important event of the year. 'This line is eventually to run from Lanchowfu in Kansu to Haichow crossing' central China from east to west, undoubtedly the most important trunk line in the country.
An. important. review of the railway fe situation in China during 1925 prepared the American Department of Commerce may here be quoted:
The condition of the railways and trans: portation during the past year has been a thing but good. Military control and civil warfare have reduced the revenues of practically every line and while conditions in 1924 were considered bad, the year 1925 has witnessed further deterioration and more disorganization. Most of the railways have not even earned their operating expenses due to the irregularity of service, the free tran portation of soldiers, the commandeering the cars for military use, the depreciation and loss of equipment, the in to make the replacements" and maintain road-beds. All these factors have made passenger traffic unsafe and practically stopped service when {t comes to moving freight. While, in 1924 it inion of those in authority that the Foods could be placed on a safe and paying in several months, the opinion expressed over the present condition is that it will take to accomplish this return to Daring 1925, roads which previously were free from military control have been' taken cover by the military parties who are in cone trol of the areas through which the road operates. Examples are the Lung-Hai and 'Tsinan-Kaicho Practically nothing been done in the way of extending the Chinese railway; veral' inquiries for switches, ok, are reported from North Chin:
rarding of contracts has been postponed indifferently on account of the unstable conditions resulting from recent hostilities, The only event worthy of mention in South China isthe purchase dur ye the year of additional locomotives and rolling stock by. the Yunnan-Hopei R, R. 'The northern section of the Canton-Hankow R. R. is in a bad st of repair and although operating to extent, the southern section. has bee ing spasmodically end shortage of equipment. 'The railway' under military control throughout the year, the same being true of the Peking-Mukden Line, Tientsin-Pukow, Sharghal-Nanking, and the Shanghai-Hangchow-Ningpo Line.
The factors mentioned in~ the above report have resulted in a situation where the investors in Chinese Government Railway bonds are in a serious danger of being deprived of their dividends for some years to come. There is also the possibility that some of the poorer lines may not be able to replace the losses of this period when the soldiers are using the roads for military purposes and the cars for travelling fortresses. There are some merchants who half-heartedly expect that the destruction of so much material may some day lead to business, but that is an unsound view, as many of those who have supplied the Ministry of Communications with locomotives, ears and other materals are still waiting for their money.
Owing to the different origins of the capital for railway many languages have come to be used on the lines, English on the Peking-Mukden line, for instance; French on the Kinhan line, Russian on the Chinese Eastern Railway. In recent years, however, the tendency has been for unification of the foreign language used by making English the secondary language in China. Last year, the Ministry of Communications made an effort to change from the use of English to the use of Phonetic Chinese for telegraph purposes on the railways, This change has been much favoured by Chinese railway men who have resented the necessity of using foreign tongue in their business. The difficulty however arises from the dialectic variations in China so that even if Mandarin is use throughout, there are sufficient variations in pronunciation to make the phonetic alphabet difficult to read in some provinces. This, however, is a problem which will solve itself in the course of time,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.