A Great Railway Scheme For China.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 12, 1912:
Yuan Approves Sun's Plans — May Mean Many More Privileges for Aliens.
PRESIDENT LIKE A DICTATOR
Men Who Go to Peking as Enemies Depart Loyal to Him — His Orders Resemble Imperial Edicts.
    PEKING, Sept. 11.— The project for a great scheme of Chinese railways, which holds the foremost place in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's programme for the modernization of China, has commanded the support of the Peking Government, and it may involve a great extension of the privileges of foreigners in the country, with possibilities of an immense increase in China's foreign trade.
    The Government has authorized Dr. Sun Yat-Sen to establish a railway corporation to carry out a system of national railways covering territory 70,000 miles in extent.
    Mixed Chinese and foreign companies will receive concessions throughout China proper. Similar concessions are to be given to foreigners for the intermediate districts, but the railroads in the frontier provinces will be under exclusively Chinese control and will be financed through foreign loans apart from the other railways.
    President Yuan Shi-Kai purposes to give Dr. Sun Yat-Sen 30,000 taels ($20,000) monthly to promote his scheme of railways, and the Provisional Assembly will, it is expected, agree to this. Dr. Sun proposes to borrow abroad, giving the railways as security until the profits pay the loans, whereupon the lines will become Government property.
    This is considered a clever political move, for while many sections of the country distrust Yuan Shi-Kai, recognizing only his capability, Sun Yat-Sen is a popular hero and the man most likely to persuade the nation to accept foreign railway loans, which were actually the immediate cause of the recent revolution.
    Dr. Sun's proposals include the opening of the whole of China proper to foreign residence and enterprise, but to make foreigners amenable to Chinese laws, for which special courts are to be established. The Government has not sanctioned the last features of the project, but Dr. Sun fully experts that they will be approved.
    French, German, and American banks will participate with Lloyd's Bank of London in the new loan to China of $50,000,000, the agreement for which was recently signed. The terms of this agreement include the starting of a bank having its head office in London with a prominent English financier as Chairman of the Board of Directors and a subordínate board at Peking. The bank is to be capitalized at $10,000,000, half of which will be subscribed by Chinese.
    The $50,000,000 loan is agitating Peking. The representative of Lloyd's Bank here says that it is merely a preliminary loan, and that all funds necessary for the reorganization of China's finances will be forthcoming. There is much skepticism, however with regard to the ultimate success of this step. The opinion is expressed that if it is successful the "six nations" group of bankers will be broken up. Their counteraction is awaited with interest. President Yuan has invited each Provisional Governor to send three representatives to a conference to be held at Peking, hoping to persuade them of the necessity of a strong central Government, the interprovincial ties now being insecure.
    The President's powers of persuasion are remarkable. Men come to Peking his enemies and depart loyalists.
    The situation is indicated by the resignation of a member of the Assembly, who said that the reason for his withdrawal was that the Government no longer recognized the Assembly. The Presidential orders frequently resemble the imperial edicts of former days. One recently created another Mongolian Duke.
    Yuan's Cabinet remains obscure. Important affairs are conducted from the President's office. The Acting Premier is Chao Ping-Chun, President of the Board of the Interior, an old adherent who emerged from retirement with Yuan Shi-Kai.