This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[30234]
No. 1.
237
[September 9.]
SECTION 3.
(No. 8.) Sir,
Consul-General Wilkinson to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received September 9.)
Yunnan-fu, July 19, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to inclose copy of a despatch which I have addressed to the Government of Burmah, sending copies of the Agreements made between the Commissioner of Customs at Mengtzu and the Director-General of the Exploitation Company of the French railroad, for customs control of railway-borne cargo at the frontier and Mengtzu stations.
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. II. WILKINSON,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
i
$
(No. 11.) Sir,
Consul-General Wilkinson to Government of Burmah.
Yunnan-fu, July 9, 1907. THE railway (and foot) bridge across the mouth of the Namti River, from Laokai, the frontier town of Tonquin, to Hok'ou in Yünnan, was, as you may remember, completed in February 1906, in time to allow the first train that traversed it to convey M. Beau, Governor-General of Indo-China, and his suite into Chinese territory on the occasion of his inspection of the southern half of the French line. M. Bean was accompanied by, among other Notables, M. Gotten, Director-General of the Company which is to manage the line as its successive sections become ready for traffic. The opportunity was taken by Mr. Brewitt-Taylor, then and still Acting Commissioner of Customs at Mengtzu, to arrange with M. Getten provisional Regula- tions for control by the Chinese Maritime Customs of the railway-borne traffic at Hok'ou. The result was the Agreement, dated Mengtzu, the 30th March, 1906, of which I have the honour to inclose copy.
The French text is the official version, but, historically, the English draft is the original, from which the other was translated. I inclose therefore a copy of it also.
By March of the present year construction trains were running for some 25 kilom. into Yunnan. In May, railhead was at kilom. 45; on the 19th June it had reached kilom. 54. It is expected to be at kilom. 88 in October, and, on the hill slope that bounds Mengtzu Plain to the east (kilom. 167) early next year. At the nearest point to Mengtzu town, 6 kilom. away, the track is 700 feet or so above the plain. From that height it gradually descends until it meets the plain near a small village named Pi-se Chai. Although this point is some 8 kilom., as the crow flies, north-north-east of the town walls, it has been decided between the Railway Exploitation Company and the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs to make Pi-se Chai the railway station for Mengtzu mart.
In anticipation of the arrival there of the locomotive, Regulations, very similar to those of the 30th March, 1906, for Hok'ou, have been agreed upon between Mr. Brewitt-Taylor and M. Gettea. A copy of these in both French text and English draft I have now the honour to forward to you.
The earlier Agreement for the frontier station alludes to "the question of the establishment of a joint customs station at Phomoi." Phomoi is the next station south of Laokai, from which it is distant 10 kilom., and as there is very little level ground at Laokoi, Phomoi is used as the present terminal depôt for rolling-stock. The proposal that a joint customs station should also be established there came from the Exploitation Company, but, as Mr. Brewitt-Taylor's letter at the time to me shows (copy was inclosed in my despatch to the Chief Secretary of the 20th June, 1906), both the French and the Chinese Customs Service were opposed to this scheme, A neat and fairly capacious shed has now been erected, at the expense of the
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