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the eventual port or is it to be Quang-yen? Quang-yen there is ground to build OR. At Haiphong you have laboriously to dig it out of the surrounding paddy fields and bring it to your site on the backs of coolies. At Quang-yen there is good water. At Haiphong there is none, There is one foot of water more over the Quaug yen bar than there is in the Haiphong River. On the other hand Haiphong is more convenient- y situated with regard to Haidzuong, Hanoi, and Nam-Dink and there are already a consider- able number of public buildings there, while at Quang-yen there is nothing. The French have hardly yet cared to acknowledge to them- selves that as a water-way the Red River is a delusion and a snare. The water traffic above Hung-hoa can never be of capital importance, If they really wish to tap Yunnan it must be by a railway, and this railway must start from Quang-yen and run along the base of the lower hills, so avoiding the mesh work of creeks which would make a line from Haiphong extraordin- arily expensive. If France were a rich country there is little doubt that Quang-yen would im- mediately be chosen as the port. Unfortunately the Republic is in greater pecuniary embarrass- ment than ever. The cable to Haiphong is only hired from the English company. Gallic pride can hardly stomach yet the construction of a | railway through their rich new colony with Eug- lish capital. A few years, however, will probably ses it, and theu, and not till then, will Yunnan be tapped.
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