Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/102

 Belgium and the Northern French railways by the Germans was paralysing to Paris; and it is the refusal to recognize that there is absolute analogy in such matters which makes discussion of China's improvement so illusory.

The first and most essential step in the building-up of the new Chinese State, if that is really desired, is to have it accepted categorically by all the Powers alike that all railways on Chinese soil are a vital portion of Chinese sovereignty and must be directly controlled by the Chinese Government: that station-masters, personnel, and police-troops must be Chinese citizens, technical foreign help being limited to a set standard; and that all railway concessions within the territory of the Republic without exception, from the Amur River in the extreme North to the Red River in the extreme South, must henceforth be considered as Chinese national property to be handed over as soon as circumstances permit to the National Railway Board.

The test-case which will come immediately before the Peace Conferences is the German Shantung railway, a system of under five hun-