THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1898. CAUSES OF TROUBLE IN CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3505, 6 August 1898, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1898. CAUSES OF TROUBLE IN CHINA.

Ffttth tofiic’i an incorporated the Wellington , Independent, established 1845, and thf New Zealander. i i

War cloud* are lowering in the East again, and the world is apparently confronted! once more by the dreadful and oousta&'tly.-; recurring prospect of a war which, if it’ should eventuate, will probably be the most awful ia human history. The cablp news of the last few days threatens, indeed, that the conflicting interests of - Britain and Bussia in China may. at any moment be put to trial by battle. Quite recently it waa announced that negotiations proceeding between Sir Claude MacDonald, the British Ambassador, and Li Hung Chang (who baa since been made President of the Toung li Taman, or Chinese Foreign Office) had assumed an ominous character. Sir Clande accused the Chinese statesman of sacrificing China to Bussia, and Iji angrily, retorted by threatening to make Russia demand the recall of the British Ambassador. That seems to imply, a Bosso.Cbinese understanding which, if it existed, would obviously be greatly prejudicial to British jin tares ta. Admittedly, however, the threat may on the other hand bo only what is vulgarly called "bluS." Chinoee diploma tit tg aye adepts

in that sort of thing, as those of most Eastern countries are. Gordon waa several times on the verge of reaigaing his command against the Taeping revolt because be eould not rely on the promises given to him on his aide; and only the Chinese administration’s sincere—and well-founded —belief in hia capability to see it safely through that perilous time induced the political rulers to behave with as much honour as could be expected of people trained to falsehood and trickery as they

The present cause of trouble ia a projected extension of the railway from Tientsin (the port of Pekin) to Niu-obwang. As explaining what this scheme is we quote the following statement from a recent issue of a London paper“ The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank . . . have agreed to provide a capital of 16,000,000 taels for the extension of the railway which at present runs from Pekin by way of Tientsin and Taku to Shan-hai-kwan. Atthia point, where the Great Wall touches the sea on the western shore of the Gulf of Leao-tong, the line now ends. The present project is to carry it forward as far as Nin-ohwang, near the north-eastern extremity of the same gulf. This port has a large trade with Manchuria on the one side and with Shanghai on the other. The total commerce of Niu-chwang amounted to nearly .23,500,000 in 1896, and it admits of considerable expansion if it gets fair play ; 319,600 tons of British shipping and 3628 tons of Russian shipping visited the port in that year. Accordingly the Russians resolved that, if they could help it, Niuchwang should not get fair play, and they designed the prolongation of their Manchurian railway so as to pass some miles away from it. The manifest object of this arrangement is, of course, to divert trade from & port in the hands of China to a port in the hands of China’s lessee. The extension for which the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank now propose to find the capital may not be able to save Niu-chwang her fair share of the Manchurian traffic, but it will prevent her'from being starved, by putting her into communication with Pekin and the intervening country. The preliminary contract has been signed, and the security ia to be the existing lines and the extension. Until the capital which is advanced by way of loan has been redeemed, the services of the present European staff are to be retained.” Against this extension M. Pavloffi, the Russian Ambassador, protested some weeks ago, declaring that the bank’s proposed railway loan “must not be agreed to in any circumstances.” Such a transaction would, he contended, be in violation of the Busso-Chineae agreement, which prohibits borrowing from foreigners in this way. A day or two ago the loan negotiations were abandoned in deference to the Russian Minister’s protest; and since then the Russian and British Ministers have exchanged defiant declarations that their respective Governments would not tolerate interference on the part of any other Power with British (or Russian) contracts. It will be at least interesting to see what these declarations mean in effect, for Lord Salisbury announced on Monday that Sir Claude MacDonald “ had been instructed to inform the Chinese Government that Great Britain would support China in resisting any Power that committed an act of aggression on account of China having permitted British subjects to make or support any railways or public works.” Those, in view of what has recently happened, are high words, and seem to apply with special significance to the Niu-chwang contract which has Just been abandoned. Another possible bone for international contestants to pick is the Pekin-Hantau railway concession which has been granted to a Franco-Belgian syndicate. The proposed line is 900 miles long and, passing through rich and populous provinces, eventually connects the capital with Hankau, the commercial centre of the Tang-tsze-Kiang Valley. To run in connection with this there is promised a line (to be built under a Eusso-Ghineso bank concession) tapping coalfields in the vicinity. Thus Franco-Russian dominion in trade with the rich valley of the Tang-tsze-Kiang (a river that drains an area of 950,000 square miles) may be achieved. Remembering that Britain is virtually contending single-handed against all these schemes of foreign Powers for absorption of Chinese trade and territory, and that the Imperial Ministry is being subjected to heavy jingoistic pressure, it must he admitted that the prospects of continued peace are anything but pleasant.