instructive. It illustrates the cause of the
popular attitude toward the British, and quite possibly explains the
bitterness in the remark quoted. The contract is noteworthy from
whatever standpoint it is viewed, whether that of time, of the
conditions it contains or of the circumstances which accompany it.

Premising that the contract delivers to a British company a monopoly
of the rich coal deposits of the province for a period of ninety years
and--quite incidentally of course--the right to use all means of
transportation, water or rail, wharves and ports now in existence, and
also to "construct, manage, superintend and work other roads, railways
waterways as may be deemed advisable"--which reads like a monopoly of
all further transportation facilities of the province--first take up
the time of the making of the contract. It was drawn in April, 1920
and confirmed a few months later. It was made, of course, with the
authorities of the Kwantung province, subject to confirmation at
Peking. During this period, Kwantung province was governed by military
carpet-baggers from the neighboring province of Kwangsei, which was
practically alone of the southern provinces allied with the northern
government, then under the control of the Anfu party. It was matter of
common knowledge that the people of Canton and of the province were
bitterly hostile to this outside control and submitted to it only
because of military coercion. Civil strife for the expulsion of the
outsiders was already going on, continually gaining headway, and a few
months later the Kwangsei troops were defeated and expelled from the
province by the forces of General Chen, now the civil governor of
Kwantung, who received a triumphal ovation upon his entrance into
Canton. At this time the present native government was established, a
change which made possible the return of Sun Yat Sen and his followers
from their exile in Shanghai. It is evident, then, that the collieries
contract giving away the natural resources of the people of the
province, was knowingly made by a British company with a government
which no more represented the people of the province than the military
government of Germany represented the people of Belgium during the
war.

As to the terms of the contract, the statement that it gave the
British company a monopoly of all the coal mines in the province, was
not literally accurate. Verbally, twenty-two districts are enumerated.
But these are the