38161
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governachl
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[39075)
No. 1.
23 NOV 09.
[October 23.]
101
SECTION 1.
Acting Consul-General Wilton to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 23.)
(No. 19.) Sir,
Yunnan-fu, September 1, 1909.
I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a copy of my despatch No. 39 of to-day's date, addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking, on the subject of railways in Yünnan.
Inclosure in No. 1.
I have, &c.
E. C. WILTON..
(No. 39.) Sir,
Acting Consul-General Witton to Sir J. Jordan.
Yunnan-fu, September 1, 1909. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt yesterday of your despatch No. 10 of the 26th July, enclosing copy of your despatch No. 264 of the 21st July, addressed to the Foreign Office, on the subject of the engagement of American engineers for Chinese railway projects in Yunnan.
I have the honour to report that on the 30th August Shih Tseng, Administrator of Foreign Affairs, told me that he believed the American engineers would arrive at Shanghae about November next. On the same day the acting governor-general, Shen-ping-k'un, informed me in conversation that the governor-general, Li-ching-hai, was indisposed at Changte, and would probably not arrive here before the 15th November. I have ascertained from a subordinate employé in the Provincial Railway Board that the funds available at the present moment for railway enterprise amount approximately to 1,000,000 dollars (80,000l. to 90,000%), and this estimate has been subsequently confirmed by the French consul in conversation.
I learn that M. Dufour, the engineer-in-chief of the French railway to Yünnan-fu, and M. Gettin, the representative of the French railway syndicate, will revisit Yunnan-fu in October or November next. M. Crépin, assistant in the French consulate and a personal friend of M. Dufour, has told me that the latter will visit Peking in the month of September in connection with the French project of a railway from Taiyuan-fu to Hsian-fu. M. Crépin appeared confident that the construction of this line would be shortly undertaken by French engineers under the direction of M. Dufour. However this may be, I am inclined to think that MM. Gettin and Dufour will endeavour to obtain the consent of the governor-general to the extension of the French railway from Yunnan-fu into Szechuan.
I have been informed by Chinese officials and French merchants at Yünnan-fu that the Chinese merchants of Yunnan will boycott the French railway to Yunnan-fu on account of the very high rates of transport. Personally, I do not think that the French railway authorities need be anxious on this score, unless the Chinese provincial authorities take definite steps to develop connection with the West River trade route (see P.G. No. 26 of 1909). "The Administrator of Foreign Affairs has informed me privately that he favours the building of a railway from Yunnan-fu to Kuangnan-fu, but I see no reason for believing that such a railway will be built in Yunnan in the near future. Moreover, it is not necessary, and a good cart road at moderate cost would answer all the purposes of Yunnan trade for another generation.
In your despatch No. 264 to the Foreign Office, it was stated that the great objection from the point of view of Prince Ching and the Ministers of the Wai-wn Pu to the project you had put forward to them was that it bound China to construct an unremunerative railway. I would respectfully point out that his Highness and their Excellencies appear to have based their objection on the comparatively insignificant amount of trade registered at the Imperial Maritime Customs at Tengyueh (235,4491. in 1908-see Mr. Rose's trade report). It cannot be denied that the Barmah-Yunnan
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