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Italian contractor near A-mi Chou complained to me that, whereas in January he had 2,000 coolies on his "lot," he had then (20th May) but a couple of dozen; if he could retain the full number his "lot" might be finished, the main tunnel excepted, within four months.
There have been many discussions on this subject of labour between the French Consulate General and the Local Government. The latter fear the introduction of men from the Two Kuang as being likely to lead to disturbances, and they advocate a system of native official recruitment amongst the Yunnanese, particularly of the north-east. The contractors have at present to find their own coolies, but there is much discontent among them, and I believe that they are awaiting the return of Herr von Kapp to ask that the Société de Construction should relieve them of this obligation.
It is in the Nam-hti Valley that the difficulty is most felt. The Yunnanese will not willingly descend the plateau to work there, so great is their dread of its insalubrity. The dread seems to be justified if it is true, as I am told, that, besides a great number of natives, some sixty Europeans have, from first to last, died victims to the malaria of the valley. "Valley" it hardly deserves to be called, but rather "gorge." So steep in many places are the sides that to mark out the track men had to be lowered by ropes, their movements directed by signals from the other side of the ravine. There are, it is true, portions of the tract north of Mi-la-ti, and not inconsiderable portions, that are almost as precipitous, but the labour problem is not so acute in the northern division, and there are several intervals of comparative, or even positive, plain. It is agreed, in short, that the northern division will be completed, as far as earthworks are concerned, before the southern.
For their rails both divisions must wait until the Tonquin line reaches Laokai. According to the Agreement between the Government of Indo-China and the Railway Company, this line should reach Laokai by the 1st May next.
The question is whether it can do so. M. Guillemoto, head of the Travaux Publics in Indo-China, who has been energetically pushing this work, has just gone home on sick leave. According to a M. Laumonier, one of the leading contributors to the "Courrier d'Haiphong" (the 14th May, 1904), the line from Yenbay to Laokai "amène avec elle tout un cortège de déceptions et de mécomptes." "Although there are no tunnels, no aqueducts, nothing, in short, out of the common, despite the assertion of M. Borreil, alter-ego of the grand chef of the Travaux Publies, the line will not be handed over by the agreed date." This is the view of another correspondent, writing from Than-ba on the 19th April, who says: "The actual condition of the work unfortunately does not justify the hope that the line can be handed over in time." If it is not so handed over, Compagnie du Yunnan will claim, this correspondent affirms, heavy damages from the Colony. I may add that an Italian “conducteur" whom I met, and who had only lately come up to Yunnan from the Yenbay-Laokai section, told me that, in his opinion, two years would be necessary to complete that section, both on account of the mechanical difficulties and for reason of the lack of workmen. As far as Traibutt the difficulties are not grave, but above that point they are, he said, most serious.
The causes assigned (by a M. Debellonnière in the "Courrier" for the 6th April last) for the distaste shown by Chinese labourers to work on the railway line in Tonquin are:--
1. The excessive cost of rice.
2. The restrictions on opium.
3. The fact that the coolies are not treated as freemen, but are "gardés comme des prisonniers à la cangue par des soldats."
Thanks to Annamese informers, many of the Chinese coolies, who cannot work without opium, have been heavily fined or imprisoned by the French authorities for smuggling the drug. These Chinese (Kuangtung men) are not, the writer declares, deterred by toil or maladies, and would work willingly enough if the Government provided them, as in Madagascar, with rice and opium at reasonable rates and allowed them a measure of liberty.
(If his conclusions are correct, as I believe them to be, they may be commended to the Government of the Transvaal.)
It should be mentioned, in connection with the Tonquin line, that the first locomotive arrived at Yenbay on the 25th April of this year, and that the section Viétri-Yenbay was formally opened by the Governor-General during the first week in May. Various writers in the Tonquin press declare that both this section and that to Laokai are so full of short curves that the working of the line will be at a great disadvantage. Not only can no great speed be attained, but the wear and tear on engines and rails will be excessive. It is affirmed that the object of the Travaux Publics, which has had to take over the track from the bankrupt contractors, has been to economize both in time and money. They have therefore avoided tunnelling, and in some instances have run their line dangerously close to the river.
If the Tonquin Railway reaches Laokai by the 1st May next, then the Construction Company are bound to complete it within two years more to Mengtse, and that is to say, it must reach Yunnan-fu within a further three years.
Whether it will do so, opinion widely varies. Yunnan-fu by the 1st May, 1910.
M. Guibert, Directeur des Travaux, and M. Prud'homme, Chef de Division--both of whom ought to be in a position to form a correct judgment--told me that the line could be completed to Yunnan-fu in three years, that is by the summer of 1907, always provided that there are no more disturbances, such as that of Lin-an last spring, to interrupt the work. Others, less highly placed, speak of five years; a few, of ten. It is agreed on all sides that the line must, and will, be completed eventually.
My personal acquaintance with the track begins, as I have said, at the Mi-la-ti divide, where is to be found the only tunnel, as far as I am aware, that is receiving its facing of dressed stone. Ordinary labourers, I may remark, receive 1 dollar for four days' work, except in the Nam-hti Valley, where wages rule higher--usually 35 cents a day. Masons are paid 40 to 50 cents a day. For the greater part of the "tracé," lying as it does among the mountains, stone is abundant; and the masons of Yunnan are fairly skilful, in great contrast to the carpenters, whose work is crude and clumsy. Along M. Peragliè's evidence, no bridges had yet been made, though quantities of dressed stone were stacked in readiness. Several large culverts had been completed, in one of which I saw a beggar had taken up free quarters, stopping the superfluous entrance with a pile of brushwood.
My first intention was to follow the railway track from this point to A-mi Chou, but the distance (some 60 kilom.) is too long to be easily done in one stage; so I decided to take the road through the Mengtse Plain and over the pass of Shui-tang. For the first few miles the railway cutting could be plainly seen, descending gradually along the western slope of the range until it vanished behind a spur. Thence forward until A-mi was reached there were no signs of its presence other than the occasional distant report of a "coup de mine." As a reference to the detailed plan of the line will show, the railway pursues a very devious course in its descent to the A-mi Plain. It has, in fact, to make its way in and out of a tangle of little valleys, particularly between kilom. 200 and kilom. 218.
A-mi Chou once reached, the line follows down the "Lin-an River" for a short distance, then, diverging to the left, passes by means of a tunnel into the valley of the Pei-ta Ho. My own path led me, as I have said, back across the Mengtse Plain to the nearest "sea" (lakes in Yünnau are dignified into "seas," even though, as in this case, they are mere dwindling swamps), by which I had descended to Mengtse, and crossed the long stone causeway over the thence into a side valley, whose northern limit is the village of Lei-kung Ssú, where my convoy offsaddled for tiffin. From this point to the head of the pass that leads down into the A-mi Plain the country seems very desolate, though the pass itself is picturesque. A-mi "Patzu" (the Plain of A-mi) as seen from the "col," is particularly striking. In the far distance, though looking deceptively close—is A-mi town, while a pagoda away to the north-east marks roughly the point of entrance of the railway.
+1 sea;
Though I left Mengtse at 8 A.M. I did not reach A-mi till sunset. The headquarters of this section of the railway occupy a temple outside the east gate of the town. The "chef de section," M. Garcia, and his wife, I had left at Mengtse, but by their courtesy I was assigned the guest-room in their residence, originally the main hall of the temple. Everywhere where possible along the line temples have been rented, and, without injury to their structure, converted into comfortable dwellings. No particular difficulty, as far as I could learn, has been experienced in securing these numerous temples, nor are excessively high rents demanded. A temple once obtained, outbuildings are run up in the compound, it being understood that these and all other innovations shall be removed when the permanent buildings--the station-masters' dwellings--are erected.