[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Rev
C. O
36075 September 20.]
IP: 20 OCT 04
No. 1.
SECTION 1.
Consul-General Wilkinson to the Marquess of Lansdowne,~~~~(Received September 20.)
(No. 7.)
Yunnan-fu, June 12, 1904.
My Lord,
I HAVE the honour to forward copy of a Report which I have addressed to His Majesty's Minister on the subject of the progress of the French Railway.
I am sending by this mail a copy to the Government of Burmah, together with the photographic reproductions of the Company's plans referred to in the Report. Copies of Private Schneider's map and of the itinéraire tachéomètre of the line I have forwarded to the Foreign Office under separate cover.
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. H. WILKINSON.
Inclosure I in No. 1.
(No. 17.) Sir,
Consul-General Wilkinson to Sir E. Satow.
Yunnan-fu, June 11, 1904. I RETURNED on the 28th ultimo from a journey to Mengtzu, where my purpose was to obtain the materials for a trade report, and to observe the progress made by the French railway. With the latter object in view, I came back to this city along the trace of the line, by way of A-mi Chou, Posi, and I-liang.
At Mengtzu M. Guibert, the Directeur des Travaux, courteously presented me with photographic reproductions of four of the most interesting of his Society's plans and charts; while at the same time I purchased from Hanoi the map of the country between Imokai and Yunnan-fu, prepared by Private Schneider, of the 9 Colonial, and published last November at the Librairie Schneider.
Of this map I have the honour to forward to you a copy, as well as a tracing of the chart of Yunnan-sen* (Yunnan-fu).* The remaining plans are described in the accompanying report, of which I am furnishing copies to the Foreign Office and to the Government of Burmah.
To the latter I am sending the original map of Yunnan-sen, containing the significant inscription "Embranchement vers Tali." In face of this last we should not, I submit, delay to demand the concession for a line from Kunlong Ferry viâ Mita to Yunnan-fu, with a branch from Mitu to Tali.
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. H. WILKINSON.
(Confidential.)
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Consul-General Wilkinson to Government of Burmah.
Yunnan-fu, June 12, 1904. I HAVE the honour to inclose copy of a report which I have addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the subject of the progress of the French railway from Haiphong to Yunnan-fu; and to invite the attention of your Government to the fact that the Company does not conceal its intention of ultimately continuing that railway to Tali.
Under these circumstances I have ventured to suggest, in my covering despatch to Sir Ernest Satow, the desirability of our obtaining, without further delay, the concession of a railroad from Kunlong Ferry to Tali and Yunnan-fu. We should not be obliged thereby to commence its construction at once; but we should have secured ourselves against what would be a serious menace, commercial if not political.
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