Kung Pin taels, 2,700,000, by the agreement of January 21, 1909.75

The new member who became a participant in the struggle for concessions by virtue of a successful war was Japan. She was comparatively a late comer in this contest. By virtue of her brilliant victories she succeeded to the southern half of the Chinese Eastern Railway from Changchun to Port Arthur by the treaty of Portsmouth, September 5, 1905. In addition she now contested other railway concessions. For the Hsinminting-Mukden and the Changchun-Kirin Railways, she signed successive agreements, first on April 15, 1907,78 then a supplementary loan agreement on November 12, 1908, then two detailed agreements on August 18, 1909,78 one for the Hsinminting-Mukden Railway and the other for the Changchun-Kirin Railway. On March 27, 1907,79 however, Japan transferred the HsinmintingMukden Railway to the control of China. On August 19, 1919,00 she also signed the memorandum regarding the reconstruction of the Antung-Mukden Railway.

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The United States seemed to be the only power that was not quite so successful in the international struggle for concessions. She obtained the Canton-Hankow Railway concession in 1898 after she had failed to secure the Peking-Hankow Railway. In the supplementary agreement of 1900 it was stipulated that "the object of making this supplementary agreement of equal force with the original agreement is to permit the benefits being transmissible by the American Company to their successors or assigns, but the Americans cannot transfer the rights of this agreement to other nations or people of other nationalities." 81 But the American China Development Company which had this concession allowed the shares for the Canton-Hankow Railway to fall into the hands of the Belgians who soon acquired a controlling share in the line and began to assume the direction of the work. Thereupon the Chinese Government

protested. Finally the concession was cancelled on August 29, 1905,82 by the payment of $6,750,000 gold, which the Chinese Government borrowed from the Hongkong Colonial Government on September 9, 1905.83

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Having completed the agreements for the concessions they had obtained in the past, they now entered into a contest over the other railway concessions which had as yet not been appropriated. The struggle of this second stage centered around the trunk line running from Hankow westward to Szechuan and southward to Canton,-commonly known as the Hukuang Railway. In securing the loan from the Hongkong Colonial Government for the redemption of the Hankow-Canton Railway concession, Viceroy Chang Chi-tung, in his letter of September 9, 1905, to the British Consul at Hankow, Mr. E. H. Fraser, promised to give Great Britain the first option on the future loan for the Canton-Hankow Railway, and so in 1909 when the construction of the railway was decided upon, Chang Chi-tung approached the British and Chinese Corporation for a loan. During the negotiation, the British insisted on the Canton-Kowloon terms, while Viceroy Chang Chi-tung insisted on the TientsinPukow terms which were much more favorable. As the British would not accept the Tientsin-Pukow terms, Chang Chi-tung broke off the negotiations and turned to a German syndicate and succeeded in signing a loan agreement. Thereupon the British charged him with breach of faith and claimed that the option was offered, not to any one British syndicate, but rather to the nation as a whole. On the other hand, Chang Chi-tung retorted that since the British and Chinese Corporation which represented the British Railway enterprises in China would not take the concession at TientsinPukow terms, he was no more bound by the original pledge, but was free to offer the concession to syndicates of other nationalities. Accusations and recriminations ensued. Finally the controversy was settled at the

Berlin conference of bankers when the British capitalists agreed to combine with the French and the Germans and to extend the concession so as to include the Hankow-Szechuan Railway. It was agreed that the French and the English should construct the HankowCanton line under a British engineer, while the Germans should construct the Hupeh section of the HankowSzechuan line. The preliminary agreement with China was signed on June 6, 1909,85 for a loan of £5,500,000 on Tientsin-Pukow terms.

Four days after the conclusion of the preliminary agreement, the United States protested. She claimed that an American Syndicate had been granted the right of participation in the Hankow-Szechuan line together with the British, basing her claim on the letter from the Chinese Foreign Office to Minister Conger dated August 15, 1903,86 and also the letter of Prince Ching to Minister Conger dated July 18, 1904.87 Recalling, however, the experience with the American China Development Company in connection with the HankowCanton concession, Chang Chi-tung refused to admit American interests. Finally a personal cable from President Taft to the Prince Regent of China, on July 15, 1909,88 changed the attitude of the Chinese Government and brought American interests into line with the fourPower group. On May 23, 1910, the four Powers entered into an agreement at a conference of the representatives at Paris,89 by which the loan was increased from £5,500,000 to £6,000,000 to be shared equally by the four Powers. Their final agreement with China was signed on May 20, 1911.90

The resumption of the international struggle for concessions, as manifested in the Hukuang loan, could not but produce corresponding reactions. That on the part of the United States was the neutralization plan of Secretary Knox. Having secured the Chinchow Aigun con

cession, he proposed to the powers in 1909 22 the neutralization of all the Manchurian railways. According to his plan, China was to secure a large international loan from the powers and redeem the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway. Thus all the railways in Manchuria would henceforth belong to China, but the supervision thereof would be shared or controlled by the Powers concerned. In other words, this neutralization plan was a concrete assertion and application of the open door doctrine in relation to the railways of Manchuria. It aimed to secure the equal opportunity of trade by the establishment of an international syndicate which would supervise the railways, not for the sake of any single nation, but for the sake of all nations. It further aimed to preserve the integrity of China by vesting the property rights of the railways in the Chinese Government. China and Great Britain received the proposal with favor, but Russia and Japan rejected it. Thus failed the Knox plan of neutralization. The reaction from China, as provoked by the resumption of the international struggle for concessions, was the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The Chinese spirit of nationalism having been stirred to its depths by the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905, the people could not endure any longer these international struggles at their expense. Taking lessons from the painful experience of the Boxer Uprising in 1900, when blinded fury led them to the fanatical attempt to expel all foreigners, this time they wisely turned their resentment on the true source of their weakness, the Manchu Dynasty. Realizing that Japan had forged her way to the forefront through the establishment of a strong and efficient government, they also believed that, by taking the reins of their government from the feeble hands of the Manchus, they could erect a government of their own, which would shelter them henceforth from the onslaughts of the West.

With this deep conviction they waited for the moment to strike. When the resumption of the international struggle for concessions manifested itself again in the Hukuang Loan negotiations, the people with their newly aroused nationalism were determined to put a stop to this spoliation of their sovereign rights and mortgage of their heritage. The gentries of the provinces affected-Hupeh, Hunan, and Szechuan-made the counter move and started a campaign for the construction of the Hukuang railways by the people themselves. To this end they raised large sums of capital and actually commenced to construct the lines. The conclusion of the Hukuang loan in 1911, however, dashed to pieces their hopes and efforts, and imperiled their investment in the railways. The explosion of a bomb in Wuchang on October 10, 1911, brought the situation to a head and heralded the advent of the Chinese Revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty and the establishment of the Chinese Republic.

In recapitulation, we may say that this period was one of international struggle for concessions. The first great scramble took place in 1898 and the second in 19081911. In the interval between the two acts of the struggle was the conflict between Russia and Japan in 19041905 over the integrity of China in Manchuria and the definition of their respective spheres of influence. The reaction on the part of the United States to the first general scramble was the enunciation of the Open Door Doctrine in 1899 and 1900, and to the second struggle in 1908-1911 was the Knox neutralization plan. The reaction on the part of the Chinese to the first scramble of 1898 was the fanatical Boxer Uprising and to the second act of the international struggle, the Chinese Revolution of 1911. During this period we may also say that the driving factor back of this international struggle for concessions was the national greed of the Powers