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trade passing through Tengyueh is small, but it labours under very great physical disabilities. Pack animals are the only means of transport. The average load is From 160 lb., at 8 rupees a load, from Bhamo to Tengyueh, .e., 7. 10s. per ton. Tengyueh to Hsiakuan the rate may be taken at 35 tael cents per load per day, 3s. Id.). i.e., approximately 101. per ton (average value of tael at Tengyuch for 1908 During the rainy season (June-September the rates of transport are higher, and, indeed, in August 1907, during a journey from Tengyueh to Bhamo, I did not see a single load going to or coming from Bhamo. I will not say that the road is actually impassable at this period, but it is so dangerous, and malignant malaria is so rife that trade is practically at a standstill. Under these conditions it is a matter of surprise, not that the present trade is small, but that it is not smaller.
If a mètre-gauge railway can be built from Bharao to Tengyueh for the amount estimated by the Government of Burmah (1,100,0004), I think a net return of 24 per cent. is not too much to expect. Moreover, railway connection between Bhamo and Tengyueh is the only possible way of saving Burmah trade with Western Yunnan as far as Isiakuan. Hsiakuan is 12 stages from Yunnan-fu, 13 from Tengyueh, and 21 from Bhamo. If there is no early prospect of a Bhamo-Tengyueh railway, I believe that the French railway will divert the trade of Hsiakuan, the largest and most important centre for foreign goods in Western Yünnan, from Burmah to Tongking.
I have, &c.
E. C. WILTON.
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