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Mitu route is on the proper line of the trunk road, and whether that route has been proved to be practicable.
A glance at the map will sufficiently answer the former question. If Mandalay is to be on the trunk road, then a straight line drawn thence through Kunlong and Yun Chou would, if extended, pass through Yunnan-fu and thence to Hankow. The real crux is the question of practicability. Now when, in the interests of the Yunnan Company, the late Lieutenant Watts-Jones surveyed the Namting Valley, he did so with fair thorough- ness, and established the possibility of building a railway to Yun Chou. From Mitu, again, on the other side of the Mekong, there remains no doubt that the railway can be It is the hundred miles carried on to Yunnan-fu with, I should repeat, a branch to Tali.
or so between Yun Chou and Mitu, and in particular the passage of the Mekong, that call for more careful examination. Lieutenant Watts-Jones admittedly scamped the passage of the Mekong; nor were, I understand, the surveys of Captain (now Major) Davies other- wise than "flying."
I would, then, put in the first front of measures to be taken to meet the situation created by the advance of French influence, the mission of an engineer who has had experience in mountain railway building, to examine in detail the country between Yun Chou and Mitu, and to settle authoritatively, once for all, the question whether a railway can be constructed between those points. I should be prepared, with my Minister's permission, to accompany such engineer, who, I would suggest, might come by way of He should arrive at Laokai Tonquin along the course of the French line to Yunnan-fu.
by the beginning of November.
If he decided that the railway is practicable, then I would urge that its construction should be our first care. Tali-fu once attained, Yungchang and Tengyüeh would necessarily fall within our sphere of influence, whereas a mere advance to Têngyüeh would not secure for us the trade of Tali when the French line has reached Yunnan-fu.
I must not be understood to maintain that it is the duty of India alone to continue the Lashio line beyond the borders of the Indian Empire. Mr. Litton is quite right in At the same time it is India that will be describing this as an "Imperial scheme."
primarily affected by the growth of French influence and trade in Yüunan. Of the influence I need not speak; as regards trade, it is obvious that the French Government and the French Railway Company will very properly endeavour to replace British and Indian goods in Yunnan by those of French provenance. I need only instance cotton yarn, where the Tonquin mills will be encouraged to compete against those of Bombay. India might therefore, I submit, fairly enough be asked to again send an officer--on this occasion a railway engineer-to examine the country between Mitu and Yun Chou.
I have permitted myself to traverse at some length Mr. Litton's contention that in discussing the question of relations between Burmab and Yunnan, anything beyond a mere reference to "the proposed railway extension via Kunlong would appear to be irrelevant.' To my mind the whole future of those relations turns largely round this extension. I will not now, however, do more than emphasize a point which appears never to have occurred to Mr. Litton, namely, that the true objective of the extension from Kunlong should not be Szechuan-that is, very literally, a side issue--but Shanghae.
If Mr. Litton had been content to regard the question of constructing a railway from Bhamo to Têugyüeh as a matter of local importance, and not, as he has done, as a question of Yunnan politics, I could have gone the whole way with him. I entirely agree as to the desirability on commercial grounds of building a light railway (I would suggest a mono-rail) from Bhamo to Têngyüeh, and with Mr. Litton, I believe that it would pay. To the advantages which he enumerates I would add that such a railway would greatly facilitate the scheme for the refund of transit duty on British goods sent into Yunnan viâ Rangoon and Bhamo, as it would make it possible to convey those goods in their original packages intact to Têngyüeh. It would, again, make it easy for any one in the employ of the Indian Government who might desire to avail himself of the short language leave for the lower course in Chinese, to proceed to Têngyüeh for the purpose; while it would shorten by more than a week the journey to Yunnan-fu of those who proposed to follow here the higher course. It is only when the Bhamo- Têrgy üch Railway is advocated as an effectual counter to French movements, and as a preferable alternative to the Kunlong extension, that I find myself at variance with
Mr. Litton.
His proposal, however, for the immediate negotiation with the Chinese authorities of a continuation from Lungchang to Tengyueh of the mule road at present under I think we repair by the engineers of our Government, I cannot altogether indorse: should wait until the section now being constructed is finished.
In the Agreement with the Tuotai of the 1-hsi it was stated (section 7) that "when the construction of this
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road" (Kulikba to Lungchang) "is complete the engineers will return home, and thoroughfares elsewhere requiring repair shall be duly considered by the Road Improve- ments Committee The local officials will engage workmen to undertake the repairs, and the Burmah Government will not intervene." If within so short a time of the signature of this Agreement we were to move for the further intervention of the Burmah Government we could hardly fail to arouse suspicion. If, on the other hand, we wait until the section now being repaired is complete, we should be able to point to the manifest advantages of this last, and to suggest its continuation in the interests of the Chinese themselves.
Furthermore, if the Government of Burmah were to offer, as Mr. Litton proposes, to construct this mule road at its own expense, I think that here again we should be suspected et dona ferentes. Disinterested kindness the Mandarins would not believe in, and they would not understand how expenditure on a mule road in a neighbouring country would be "a good investment" for a Government that had no territorial designs
upon it.
In the case of a railway the matter would present itself otherwise; for here we should have the precedent of the French line. The Chinese Government may have entertained suspicions of the real motives of the French in pressing for this concession; they may indeed still entertain them. But the fact remains that the concession has been granted; and as such a concession has been granted to the French, it would appear only natural that the British should ask for and obtain, one similar. Any British Company that would be prepared to accept like terms with the French should have little difficulty in coming to an agreement at Yünnan-fu for the construction of a railway from Bhamo to Têngyüch. What those terms are you will have seen from the copy inclosed in my immediately preceding despatch.
The third question raised in Mr. Litton's Memorandum is the vexed one of the rescis- sion of the rule forbidding the transit of Yünnan opium across Burmah. I admit the force of Mr. Litton's arguments, and I am inclined to agree with him that in this matter sentimental objections have more justification than fiscal forebodings. I doubt if Yunnan opium conveyed vià Burmah to Canton would be a much more serious rival to the Patna and Malwa drug than is now the same opium conveyed thither via Kuangsi. But I think that the suggestion to relax the rule should come from the other side; and, for obvious reasons, this suggestion, should be cast in general terms, and be, so to speak, for value received. To put it plainly, would have the Yunnan Government (moved thereto by the Commissioner of Customs at Tôngyüeh) propose to the Burmah Government that in exchange for permission to import salt into Yunnan (or into Yung- chang Prefecture) the Burmah Government should agree to allow all Yünnan products (except copper cash) to pass through Burmah to Kuangtung on payment of a transit charge of, let us say, one-eighth of the export duty,
I fear, however, that on trial it would be found that the objections of the Yünnan Government to such a proposal are not less deeply rooted than any one on the British side of the border.
Inclosure 8 in No. 1.
Note by Mr. Warry on Railway Extension from Burmah into Yünnun.
Scope of Memorandum.
1. In the following note I have endeavoured to confine myself strictly within the limits indicated by his Honour. The connection of the vast populations of India and China by rail, and the political effect of a British-owned railway in Yunnan, especially in the event of a disruption of the Chinese Empire, are subjects of high interest, but I have resisted the temptation to stray into those alluring by-paths.
Advance in our Knowledge of the Configuration of Yünnan.
2. The problem of railway extension from Burmah into Yunnan has recently entered upon an entirely new phase. Up to 1898 the approaches to the Yunnan plateau were unsurveyed, and many of the railway schemes put forward were foolish and impracticable.
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