* * * * *

China, too, taking on Western ways, is emulating Japan in establishing a
modern merchant marine. The Government is giving State aid to native
steamship companies, and subsidizing ship-yards. According to the United
States consul-general at Hongkong the Government is now (1911) to
furnish half of the amount of an extension of the capital of the Chinese
Merchants' Steam Navigation Company to twenty million taels (about
$12,600,000 gold), and thirty additional steamers of modern type are to
be built for service--ten on foreign routes, including a route to the
United States, and twenty on routes between Chinese ports; while a new
ship-yard is to be set up at Shanghai under Government auspices,
capitalized at five million taels (about $3,200,000 gold).

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote FC: Meeker.]

[Footnote FD: Meeker.]

[Footnote FE: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 282, March, 1904.]

[Footnote FF: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 316, Jan, 1907, pp. 92-93.]

[Footnote FG: Con. Gen. H.B. Miller, Yokohama, in Con. Repts., no. 32,
pp. 120-121, May, 1907.]

[Footnote FH: Vice Con. Gen. E.G. Babbitt, Yokohama, in Con. Repts., no.
344, p. 216, May, 1909.]