Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/145

 being gravely compromised; and to spread the idea that a bully's rule is the only one the country is fit for. It is by means of their local railway control, just as much as by soldiery, that the military governors maintain themselves.

Now, inasmuch as it is certain that the payment of the Boxer indemnities will never be resumed (since the Allies could not easily consent to such a crime), but will be diverted to some good cause such as education, the urgent matter of a system of national, hard-surface highways should not be lost sight of. Republican China has inherited from the Manchus a great system of Imperial highways, useless for modern purposes since they are unmetalled, but covering a great portion of the land and capable of knitting the country very closely together, besides vastly increasing the prestige of Peking. The allocation of at least one-quarter of the Boxer indemnities to national road-building would in a decade work miracles of education among the people and strengthen the voice of authority. With credit and currency restored, and with a network of railways and roads covering the twenty-two provinces, republican China might soon become as important a factor in world-commerce and world-industry as