The Sinyang-Pukow Railway

The preliminary agreement for the concession of this line
was signed in 1899. Not until November 14, 1913, was
the final agreement ^ duly signed by the Ministers of Com-

' See Inter-Group Agreement for the Sextuple Reorganization Loan,
in Far Eastern Review, Mar., 1913, pp. 439-441 ; or China Year Book,
1914, ch. on Finance.
' For full text of agreement, see Far Eastern Review, Jan., 1914, pp.
J07-310.
158 RAILWAY PROBLEMS IN CHINA [386

munications and Finance on the one part and the represen-
tative of the Chinese Central Railways, Ltd., on the other
part. The final agreement was signed as a purely British
undertaking, providing for the appointment of British en-
gineers and the purchase of materials from Great Britain.
But as a large percentage of the shares ^ of the Chinese
Central Railways, Ltd., are held in France and Belgium,
French and Belgian partners are entitled to a division of the
profits. The French and Belgians are, however, not ad-
mitted to a participation in the allotment of purchase of
materials and appointment of engineers, because by doing
this openly the truth would be revealed to the Chinese Gov-
ernment. Without informing China, by the 1905 inter-
group agreement ^ the British have practically transferred
to the French and the Belgians a part of their rights which
the British Government had wrung from China as a penalty
for signing the Peking-Hankow loan with the Belgians.
