Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/143

 to a single concessionaire or to a group of concessionaires, which provides for the issue of a gold loan on the security of the given line; the amortization of that loan after a certain period; and the appointment of a chief engineer and a chief accountant of the concessionaire's nationality—the whole enterprise being nominally controlled by a Chinese director-general, together with a host of his relatives. The granting of this concession, however, is held to carry certain rights, irrespective of the real interests of the country; for instance, the concessionaire considers it necessary to stop the building of any line in his vicinity, particularly parallel lines, and sometimes feeder lines if contracted for by other parties. Moreover, the sphere of influence is still such a cherished doctrine among the diplomatic fraternity, that the invasion of a given sphere by a contractor of rival nationality is one of the most dangerous crimes, providing a local casus belli which is fought out bitterly in the coulisses of the various ministries and throughout the Far Eastern press, Asia Minor could hardly provide a more brilliantly tinted map than the present railway map of China when it is coloured according to the nationality of each concessionaire group. There is consequently