[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
0.
SOUTH-WEST CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
31160 [June 20 269
Peat 20 AUG 03
SECTION.
Consul-General Scott to the Marquess of Lansdowne.-(Received June 22.)
(No. 16.)
Canton, May 19, 1903.
My Lord,
I HAVE the honour to inclose herewith copy of my despatch No. 16 of the 14th instant to His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, relative to the activity at present displayed by the Tonkin Government in the Southern provinces of China.
I have, &c. (Signed)
JAMES SCOTT.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
(No. 16.) Sir,
Consul-General Scott to Mr. Townley.
Canton, May 14, 1903.
I HAVE the honour to inclose an extract from the local press, having special reference to French activity in the Canton provinces.
The writer of the article is the author of a recent volume entitled, "The French in Tonkin and South China," a subject concerning which he, as former editor of the Hong Kong Daily Press, set himself to acquire full information.
*
French activity in these provinces may be summarized :--
1. Large new post-office buildings, with sub-stations in Canton city and an agency at Wuchow, erected and maintained at the expense of the Tonkin Government.
2. A new hospital in Canton under a medical officer detached from the Tonkin military forces.
3. Two steamers, one of which has started running during the last week, on the West River, and two other steamers plying regularly between Canton and Hong Kong-all heavily subsidized by the Tonkin Government.
4. A large school, called the École Pichon, in Canton city, for the special instruction of Chinese students in French, said to have already 100 pupils.
5. French Consulates, post-offices, schools, and medical hospitals are maintained at Pakhoi and Kiungchow. On the Tonkin frontier there are regular Consular establishments at Mêngtze and Lungchow.
6. A regular line of French subsidized steamers trading between Haifong and Hong Kong, calling en route at Pakhoi, Hoihow, and Kwang-chow-wan.
7. A branch of the Banque de l'Indo-Chine, which is flooding Canton with its notes, on which its existence would appear to depend.
8. The very small share which the French have in the actual trade of Canton can be gauged by an inspection of the Customs Returns. There are, in fact, only three French firms of any standing, namely, Pasquet and Co., Chauvin, Chevalier, and Varenne and Co. What, however, the French lack in solid commercial interest they gain by their missionary propaganda and the lending of the tricolour to Chinese.
9. Contemplated railway extension from Haifong to Nanning viâ Langson and Lungchow, and from Hanoi to Yunnan-fu via Mêngtze.
I have, &c. (Signed)
JAMES SCOTT.
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