Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/128

 Railway Company undertook the portion (320 miles) southward of Kyōtō to Shimonoseki; and the Kiushiu Railway Company undertook the lines in Kiushiu. The whole road is now in operation with the exception of two sections measuring 45¼ miles and 89¼ miles, respectively, namely, the part of the Sanyo Railway between Mitajiri and Shimonoseki, and the part of the Kiushiu Railway between Kumamoto and Kagoshima. It is not literally correct to say that this main trunk line has been constructed as originally planned. The first project was to carry the Tōkyō-Kyōtō road through the interior of the island so as to secure it against enterprises on the part of a maritime enemy. Such engineering difficulties presented themselves, however, that the coast route was ultimately chosen, and though the line through the interior was subsequently undertaken, strategical considerations have not been allowed to govern its direction completely. The programme of construction is rendered sufficiently clear by a glance at the map.

When Japan began to build railways, much discussion was taking place in England and India as to the relative advantages of the wide and narrow gauges, and so strongly did the arguments in favour of the metre-gauge appeal to the Indian Government that it adopted the latter in 1873, although some five thousand miles of wide-gauge roads had already been built. The English advisers of the Japanese Government maintained