From Our Quen Correspondent, Maichow, Ksu., July iv. 7
Resumption of work on the Lung-Hai Railw which had been suspended for some months, is now assured by the a Haichow o of the Lung-Hai staff. who are now engaged in securing suitable Jiving quar ters for their families This beginning of activities will bring to a close a controversy of which th has been beard in Chinese les for many mantis. Tt will be remembered by some, who havi followed the course of this impor-taut project, that for many the sew terminal was a matter doubt, exhaustive inns before it was finally determined to run the road slit cast as possible, which route brought it to Iaichow, where a huge harbour was plaunelon an ideal site some zd miles cast of this city.
Ag soon as it was learned that for the present at least. thy har-hour development was shelved a vigorous effort was made by the Nantungchow people to have the railway diverted to that port. The chow people, fecting that the hopes of a decade were in danger of being responded with, eq the—telegraphic administration was no little enriched by the bombardment of telegrams that ensued.—So armed were the people of Haichow by the array ay of political strength on the oth side that the Chamber of Commerce appealed to the members of the foreign community for aid in the advertising of their rights and claims, but all of the latter declined the honour of being associated with a contro of such nature. The decision of the authorities to bring the road here is worth the interest of everyone in China north of the River.
The original idea of this railway w straight road from distant west China to tidewater. and row, 1 ing to bisect North China.—Lanchoufu, in distant Kansu; was to be the western beginning of the completed line, though, of course. as a matter of convenience, it was begun in the middle and built towards both ends. It cuts the Peking Hankow line at Chengchow in Honan and the Tientsin Pukow Tine at Wsuchoufu. The arguments put forward by the Nantungchow people were plausible enough in a narrow way. They claimed a fine ready-made harbour and established shipping facilities with the outside world; but they failed to see that if it we simple matter of harbour facilities, the Lunghai need never have been built out east of central China, for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.