Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/209

Rh the competing nations of the world are forced upon the notice of the traveller at every turn. Thus the immense obstacles which stand in the way of even so elementary and so necessary a reform as the construction of railways were brought to light during my stay at Ch'êngtu by the publication, for the first time, of a balance-sheet of the proceeds of three years' enforced contributions and taxation towards a fund for building a line from Ch'êngtu to Hankow. This document, though interesting as a curiosity, was of little value as a statement of accounts, since, as I have already mentioned, a portion at least of the miserably inadequate sum of 4½ million taels—say £677,000—said to be in hand had been abstracted, temporarily at any rate, to pay for the punitive expedition to the borders of Tibet, while it was generally reported that of the remainder the greater part had been commandeered to [sic] provide machinery for the arsenal and mints at Ch'êngtu and Ch'ung-k'ing,—a state of affairs which was even hinted at by the balance-sheet itself, in which it was affirmed