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a mart, to install here a large agency of l'Union Commerciale, with ten or a dozen Europeans. The firm would deal in all kinds of goods, including kerosene. From other sources I hear that although this firm succeeded in raising a considerable amount of capital in France last year, its prospects in Yunnan Province are not regarded as brilliant. A large sum was lost three or four years ago by the Mengtzu Agency through speculation in opium.
The Yunnan Syndicate is showing more signs of life than has been the case for some time. M. Lutz, the local Manager, has got as far as Mengtzu, where he is looking for a house in which to set up an extensive assayist's laboratory purchased in England. He is to be assisted by a young Englishman named Collins, now in Hong Kong. Both gentlemen contemplate visiting Yunnan-fu shortly, when I shall be in a better position to report on the proposals and prospects of the Syndicate.
A Match Factory, to be run with capital largely raised in London and (I believe) Singapore, is in contemplation, but is being delayed by the death of one of the two local Managers, M. Schneebeli, a Swiss.
Proposed Distribution Agency for goods from India and Burmah. The Norwegian agent in Yunnan of the British and Foreign Bible Society (Mr. Edward Amundsen), a capable man with an extensive personal knowledge of Yünnan and Szechuan, laid before me last October a proposal to open depôts at Yunnan-fu and Hsiakuan for the display of samples of woven goods, hardware, watches, soaps, paper, medicines, boots, grocers' stores, and the rest. This proposal I transmitted, through the Government of Burmah, to the Rangoon Chamber of Commerce. In due course I was informed by the Chief Secretary that it had been passed on to the Chamber, but I am still without any acknowledgment from the latter. I regret to say that this apparent indifference to the furtherance of trade with Yünuan would seem to be characteristic of the present Rangoon Chamber.
Inland Transit Passes. A local Chinese merchant sent in to me a petition affirming that a consignment of dried orange peel ("ch'en pi"), for which an inland transit pass had been taken out at Chungking, was being detained by the li-kin collectorate here. Petitioner represented that the pass had been granted to the British firm of Kung-tai (J. W. Stewart), but on making inquiries I found that it had been issued to the China Merchants Company. Although the goods had, by their passage through Hong Kong, acquired a foreign status, they are of Chinese origin; I did not, therefore, feel justified in doing more than to advise, informally, the Provincial Government to release them pending a reference to the Chungking Customs.
This is the first case for upwards of three years in which complaint has reached me of lack of respect shown to transit passes.
Laokei-Yunnan-fu Railway.--Towards the end of 1905 the Construction Company declared that the work could not be completed for the amount originally estimated, and that some sixty million more francs would be necessary. It was in connection with this demand that M. Beau, Governor-General of Indo-China, visited the province last March.
His Excellency was conducted along the line, up the valley of the Namhti, past the Mengizu Plain to La-li-hei, a point some three stages further north. Thence he returned to Tonking by way of Mengtzu and Manhao. The object of this tour was doubtless to show what difficulties had been, and remained to be, surmounted; but to thus confine the Governor-General's attention to a series of ravines was hardly the best way to convince him that the Yunnan Province is worth exploiting. However that may be, it is understood that M. Beau concluded that further financial aid must be given, and with that end in view has been personally consulting at Paris with the State Departments concerned. (He returned a short time since to Hanoi.)
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Meanwhile the Frenchì Government had sent out a Mission of Inquiry, headed by M. Drogue, Engineer-in-chief of the Ponts et Chaussées. He was assisted by two Engineers, MM. Constantin and Gervais, and by two Financial Experts, MM. Decron and Loisy. The Commission followed the line right up to Yunnan-fu, accompanied by M. Guibert, the Chief Superintendent, and M. Sainson, formerly Consul at Mengtzu, representing the Construction Company; by M. Jullidières, Acting Director-General of Public Works in Tongking, and MM. Metour and Kerler, representing the interests of the Colony; and by MM. Langrogne and Chemin-Dupontès, representing the Conces- sionnaires. Two days only were spent at Yunnan-fu, after which the party returned to Mengtzu along the earlier trace, through Tunghai. On their arrival at Mengtzu M. Drogue declared himself so disgusted with Chinese inns as to be unwilling to encounter the worst of them all, those between Mengtzu and Manhao. He accordingly elected to go down to Tongking by the Namhti route. Part of his following took the
ordinary road to Manhao, while part continued to observe the original trace along the Sinhsien Valley.
It is confidently expected that, as a result of their reports, the money asked for by the Construction Company will be forthcoming. MM. Guibert and Sainson to
go Paris with the Mission, M. Guibert's place being meanwhile taken by M. du Traz.
Service trains are running for at least 33 kilom. (say 20 miles) in Yünnan territory, and work is being energetically pushed everywhere. Some 46,000 coolies are now employed, costing per head in the Namhti Valley, in wages and rice, 1 dol. 20 e, a-day. At this (the Yunnan-fu) end of the line, the buildings of the station are complete except for doors, windows, and ironwork. All the staff of the section has been trans- ferred elsewhere, and one European alone will be left in charge of the buildings and of the comparatively small remaining work on the embankments. It seems now fairly certain that the railway will be completed by the end of 1909,
P.S.-A Reuter's telegram (Hong Kong, 24th January) reports that the French Government has approved the project of a loan intended to complete the Yunnan Railway.
Movements of Foreign Officials.
M. Leduc, “Député du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères," left Yunnan-fu on the 7th February, after a residence here of close on three years. I hear (from Chinese sources) that he has recommended his Government to bestow decorations on Hsing-lu, for many years Superintendent of the Department for Foreign Affairs in Yünnan and now Financial Commissioner in Kueichow; on Kuei-fu, his sometime Assistant, now Prefect of Chengchiang; on Chou Hang, formerly Magistrate at Mengtzu; and on Tang, French Secretary in the Foreign Department. In return a telegram was sent, about the 4th February, to Peking, asking for the bestowal of M. Leduc of rank of the Second Degree (Erh-p'in Ting-t'ai).
With the exception of four months at Foochow in 1887, M. Leduc has spent the whole of his twenty-one years of service either in the north, at Peking or Tien-tsin, or in this province, at Mengizu and Yunnan-fu. He remains titular "Premier Interprète ' —or, as we should say, Chinese Secretary-to the French Legation; but it is doubtful whether on his return to China at the close of this year he will take up the post.
He is succeeded here by M. Arnould, Consul of the Second Class. M. Arnould has been stationed at Aleppo, and is altogether ignorant of Chinese. He is some 52 years of age, and has been confined to his bed since his arrival, so that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting him. He has brought with him his young son of 10, with the latter's governess, Mme. Arnould remaining in France with her daughter.
M. Gélis, Assistant at the French Consulate-General, leaves for Foochow. He has been replaced here by M. Soulier, a young man who has spent five years in China, for the most part at Shaughae. He will act as interpreter for M. Arnould.
To the Yunnan-fu agency of the Imperial Chinese Post has been sent a Frenchman, M. Périer, at one time employed at the French post-office at Tien-tsin, but later on at the Chinese Post at Yochow. Hitherto the office has been run by Chinese alone, with the result that many complaints reached the Superintending Commissioner (at Mengtzu) of petty frauds or exactions. A recent notification by the Judicial Commissioner invites popular confidence in M. Périer and the three branch offices he has opened in this city.
M. Mougeot, "Receveur" at the French post-office here, expects to shortly return to Tonquin. He has an uncle who is, or was, a Cabinet Minister.
Missions.
Mgr. Fenouil, titular Bishop of Tenedos and Vicar Apostolic in Yunnan, died on the 10th January, aged 86. He came out to Hong Kong nearly sixty years ago, stayed on the island some two years, then proceeded to this province, where he resided continuously up to the day of his death. He was, I imagine, the oldest European resident in China. In earlier days he more than once went in peril of his life; but he died a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. For the past few years he led a very secluded life, indeed, never saw him. A Suffragan Bishop, Mgr. Excoffier, acted for him till a year or two ago, when the Suffragan returned to Rome, severing for some reason his connection with the Mission. Since that time P. Maire, the Pro-Vicaire,
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