PEKING, MAY

The contract, authorized by Imperial Edict which will be signed to-morrow by representatives of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, the Banque de Hindo-Chine, and the American group with Sheng Hsuan-huai, Minister of Communications, is regarded as the most important ever signed in China.

The scope of the contract has been extended since the issue of the railway

MÉLANGES. 57e

edict of the 9th. The loan will ultimately amount to not less than £10,000,000, providing capital for

(1) The redemption of the unredeemed gold bonds, amounting to about £ 500,000, issued by the original American concessionnaires of the Canton- Hankau Railway ;

(2) The construction, under a British chief engineer, of a main line of 600 miles from Wuchang, the capital of the Hupei Province, through Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, to the southern border of Hunan, where it will connect with the Kwangtung Railway now being constructed by the Chinese;

(3) The construction, under a German chief engineer, of a main line of 400 miles in Hupei Province from Ichang on the Yangtsze through Chingmenchau and Siangyang to Kuangshui, on the Peking-Hankau Railway;

(4) The construction, under an American chief engineer, of a main line

of 200 miles in Hupei Province from Ichang to the border of Szechuan Province.