The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-09-27
CHINA IS A
GREAT COUNTRY.
1t is on the Eve of a National De-
velOpment and Only Needs to Have
Its Water WAYS Made NaYigable.
By Sir Thomas Jackson. Of the Hong
90 Kong and Shanghai Bank.

BY Sir Thomas Jackson. Of the Hong
Kong and Shanghai Bank.
We hear all kinds of things about
rebellion here and uprising there
about Boxers associations and things
| of that kind in China. But such dis
turbances have always existed in that
country, and they are but local and
/ transient. They are not the result of
a second childhood or anything of that
sort.
think if you will get hold of $50, 000,-
| 600 of people and govern them with
greater ease than the Chinese are gov
form one of the greatest feats that civ
| ilization has known
China is a marvellous country. I
need not tell you what it represents
almost a quarter of the globe
Its men are equal to any climate
They can work as well with the tenn
perature below zero as they can when
it is a hundred in the shade. Surely
nation of this kind cannot be stamped
out in a hurry.
My good friend Lord Charles Beres-
ford, think, made great mistake
when he entitled his book -aThe Break
Up of China" Considering the many.
many centuries that the Chinese nation
has gone on, do not think it requires
much faith on our part to expect that it
will go on for a considerable time more
On the contrary, we are on the eve of
a great development in China. We on
ly want to have that vast country in
tersected with railways, as this great
continent is We want it's rivers and
waterways opened up. Then it will
show a development that will astonish
the nations.
China is a country to which railroads
are particularly applicable A great
part of it is very fiat and all of it is
densely populated
Lately when travelling over the Ca
madam Pacific I saw that they had
first to make the line and trust to it
to create its own traffic. In China the
reverse is the case They have the
traffic there already waiting for the
railroads.
China also has magnificent water
ways. It is intersected by canals from
one end of the country to the other.
but unfortunately these canals have
been allowed to get into disrepair.
AS to roads, there are practically
none at all that are worthy of the
name
The introduction of railroads into
China will break down the system of
impositions or "squeezes' on the part
of the petty mandarins- 1t is easy to
stop q river boat manned by a dozen
a train. The piracy which is SO COM
mon on the rivers in the interior would
soon be stopped if steamers came into
use.
The Chinese Government has been
most liberal in granting concessions for
railways and mining rights, but re-
greet TO say that the concessionaries
have not been equal to the opportuni-
ties that have been offered to them
They have been jumping over each
other to get the concessions, but they
have run behind in carrying them out
All things considered, I really fail to
set bounds to the magnitude of the
China trade. I am equally convinced
that there viii be tremendous compe-
tition for it. and I will give a reason OF
my own which I have never before seen
in print-the vast augmentation Of the
budgets Of the world.
One after another the nations of Eu-
rope have doubled their budgets for
the army. navy and civil service How
are they to pay for these budgets2