Enclosure 2
379
HONGKONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
31st July 1893.
MY LORD,
At the last meeting of the Members of this Chamber the often mooted question of the desirability of opening the upper waters of the Chu Kiang or Canton River to foreign trade and steam navigation came under discussion.
The Committee have reason to believe that owing to the friendly relations which happily exist between the respective Governments, and between the Hongkong Government and the Viceroy of the neighbouring Province there might now be found less reluctance than heretofore to consider such a proposal, and I am therefore directed by the Chamber to address Your Lordship in the hope that you may see fit to instruct the British Minister at Peking to bring the matter as soon as he can conveniently do so to the notice of the Tsung-li Yamên.
Foreign trade at the existing treaty ports in Southern China has now reached its utmost limit and cannot possibly be extended until new fields are opened up by improved means of communication with the interior.
At present owing to the cost of transport which in many districts is limited to porterage by coolies, in the absence of water carriage, trade in foreign goods is necessarily confined to small dimensions, nor can it penetrate to any distance from the coast or River ports.
The numerous lekin and other taxing stations in the inland districts act still further as restrictions, and it is evident that if foreign trade is to be developed and corresponding advantages are to be gained by the Chinese some steps should be taken to facilitate and extend commercial intercourse in these districts and beyond.
The foreign Trade of South China is really confined to a very few ports, consisting of Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Macao, Canton, and Pakhoi, and from these the interior marts of the provinces of Fokien and Kwangtung are scarcely reached. The great inland provinces of Kwangsi, Yunnan, and Kuei-chow are from a commercial point of view not touched at all.
Canton which should be the gateway of trade to South Western China is so only in a very restricted degree, owing to the barriers to inland transit generally, and the existing traffic is still further threatened by a diversion to the new route opened up through Tonkin to Yunnan. The French Government