CHINA'S NORTHERN RAILWAY. — ♦ A DIPLOMATIC TRIUMPH FOR BRITAIN. [PBESS ASSOCIATION.] Shanghai. 27th December.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 154, 28 December 1898, Page 5

CHINA'S NORTHERN RAILWAY. — ♦ A DIPLOMATIC TRIUMPH FOR BRITAIN. [PBESS ASSOCIATION.] Shanghai. 27th December.

Sir Claude Mac Donald, British Minister at Pekin, hao received an assurance from China that she will not alienate to any foreign Power the railway from Shanhaikwan to Niuchwang. This is considered to be a diplomatic triumph for England. [The line in question is that along the coast from Tientsin, the port of Pekin, to Niuchwang, in Manchuria, the centre of Russian influence, and the raising of the loan for its construction was the cause of much competition between Russian and English financiers a few months ago. Ultimately the British bank, the Hongkong-Shanghai Banking Corporation, succeeded in getting the contract for the loan. The Russians had, in the last resort, objected to a mortgage of the line to the bank as security for the indebtedness, claiming that to mortgage to any other nationality than their own would be contrary to the Russo-Chinese agreement. This difficulty was overcome by the HongkongShanghai Bank agreeing to accept some other form of security, the nature of which did not transpire. Now British diplomacy seems to have gone further, and obtained an assurance that Russia shall not be allowed to get the line into her own hands.]