2. Great Britain, on her part, engages not to seek for her own account, or on behalf of British subjects or of others, any railway concessions to the north of the Great Wall of China, and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway concessions in that region supported by the Russian Government. The two contracting parties, having nowise in view to infringe in any way the sovereign rights of China or of existing treaties, will not fail to communicate to the Chinese Government the present arrangement, which, by averting all cause of complication between them, is of a nature to consolidate peace in the far East, and to serve the primordial interests of China herself." Second Note. "In order to complete the notes exchanged this day respecting the partition of spheres for concessions for the construction and working of railways in China, it has been agreed to record in the present additional note the arrangement arrived at with regard to the line Shanghaikuan-Newchwang, for the construction of which a loan has been already contracted by the Chinese Government with the Shanghai-Hongkong Bank, acting on behalf of the British and Chinese corporation. The general arrangement established by the above-mentioned notes is not to infringe in any way the rights acquired under the said loan contract, and the Chinese Government may appoint both an English engineer and a European accountant to supervise the construction of the line in question, and the expenditure of the money appropriated to it. But it remains understood that this fact can not be taken as constituting a right of property or foreign control, and that the line in question is to remain a Chinese line under the control of the Chinese Government, and can not be mortgaged or alienated to a non-Chinese Company. As regards the branch line from Siaoheichan to Sinminting, in addition to the aforesaid restrictions, it has been agreed that it is to be constructed by China herself, which may permit European—not necessarily British—engineers to periodically inspect it, and to verify and certify that the work is being properly executed. The present special agreement is naturally not to interfere in any way with the right of the Russian Government to support, if it thinks fit, applications of Russian subjects or establishments for concessions for railways, which, starting from the main Manchurian line in a southwesterly direction, would traverse the region in which the Chinese line terminating at Sinminting and Newchwang is to be constructed." _Great Britain, Papers by Command, Treaty Series, Number 11, 1899._ CHINA: A. D. 1899 (April). Increasing ascendancy of Manchus in the government.