CO129-224 - Foreign Office - 1885 — Page 450

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Jade-

precious stones which the Chinese say are to be found, may or may not exist. e undoubtedly does. The country is rugged and precipitous almost beyond belief, and population is scanty, the whole province having been devastated during the Mahou- an rebellion. Still, its mineral wealth in tin and copper alone is sufficient to supply a ing export trade, and, no doubt, the carriage of native opium to other parts of China

give plenty of employment to land-carriers, and to vessels afloat.

Kuangsi, on the other hand, is a province rich in vegetable productions, and onably populous and wealthy. Of the mineral wealth of the province I know nothing, cept that no minerals produced in Kuangsi appear among Pakhoi exports. There are stricts in the province producing tea and silk. The route which can attract these icles will assuredly make a profit. I have the honour to inclose copy of a cutting from article in the "China Mail," signed "Pamuge,' * who writes from Tien-tsin. I am able to identify the writer, but he writes as though he had a knowledge of his subject, ngh I do not know to what he refers when he speaks of "the jealousies of the foreign isters in Peking." I quite agree with him that if Kuangsi can be properly opened, its pping port will secure a lucrative trade.

Pakhoi has one advantage over any of the Tonquin ports, viz., the good approach to harbour, which can be entered at any time of the tide in a 5-fathom channel. No pilots employed. At Haiphong, on the contrary, pilotage on a small steamer inwards and wards, amounts to 60 dollars and upwards.

With regard to the latter clauses of the VIth Article of the Treaty I have not much The regulations regarding the sale and transport of munitions of war call for no Bark. The special clause of the Trade Regulations affecting the import and export of n, will, I venture to predict, concern the export of opium more thau the import. ngsi will take but little Indian opium, and to import it into Yünnan would be rrying coals to Newcastle."

The question of the coasting trade may be of great importance. As it is, a large portion of the coasting trade between this and Hong Kong and Macao is done by junks, th pay duty at the native Custom-house, and are granted a discount which enables to compete on favourable terms with steamers. These junks belong to the Macao d. They are allowed a discount of 9 taels on the duty of 30 taels per chest on all opium they carry, and aniseed oil, which is charged 5 taels per picul at the foreign om-house, only pays 1 tael at the native Custom-house when it is exported by junk. I sincerely hope and trust that the French will never allow junk-borne cargo a arable differential scale of duties, and, further, that they will do all in their power to the monopoly of the Macao Guild, which hampers and obstructs the development of

on this coast.

To sum up, I hold that

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That Pakhoi, under present conditions, is in no position to develop her trade with si and Yunnan.

That her trade with the neighbouring districts is scarcely worth the expense of a me Custom-house, a Consulate, and a vessel of war.

That it is perfectly possible, by means of lighter duties, observance of transit and, still more, by the construction of roads or railroads, to build up the trade of bi into one of great value.

4. That if a trade route from Tonquin into Kuangsi and Yunnan is established and loped, while nothing is done here, Pakhoi must remain the port of the immediate hbourhood (a poverty-stricken country), and of the Yu-lin district only, which would quivalent to a collapse of all our hopes and expectations.

I have, &c.

(Signed) CLEMENT F. R. ALLEN.

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* Not printed.

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