The International Development of China/Appendix 5
APPENDIX V
Peking, June 17, 1919.
Hon. Sun Yat Sen,
Shanghai.
Dear Sir:
Permit me as a professional railway man to express my pleasure with your article appearing in the Far Eastern Review for June.
I will not at this time express approval or disapproval of the route which you have chosen but the idea of a line to connect up the great agricultural interior with the densely populated coast appeals to me strongly. I feel that you are making a definite contribution to railway economic theory in this respect, whereas the line itself would relieve congestion, open up a production area which would lower food costs, furnish employment to large numbers of soldiers to be disbanded, and put in circulation a large amount of hard money which would go far to correct the currency situation.
I am especially pleased to have your article appear at this time for I had already written one at the request of the publishers of the forthcoming "Trans-Pacific" magazine in which I touched upon the same line of thought. This will not appear until July and your opinions will have done much to prepare the minds of sceptics upon the subject by that time.
I trust that this intrusion of an entire stranger may be pardoned, and that you will continue to support the thought which you have so ably presented.
Very truly yours,
(Signed)
J. E. Baker.