CO129-224 - Foreign Office - 1885 — Page 455

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question calling for solution; and I ought to be able to collect information that would add to the existing data. The routes in question are:—

1. The Yang-tzu by Sui Fu.

2. The Irrawaddy by Bhamo.

3. The Salween by Lung-ling Chou.

4. The Ssu-mao caravan route.

5. The new Tonquin caravan route.

6. The Canton River.

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On the way back I could obtain particulars of opium production in South-east Yünnan and Kwei-chow.

I have obtained instruments and the necessary knowledge to observe for latitude by stars north and south of the zenith, aud for altitude by boiling point and by aneroids, and I hope, therefore, to be able to show results of some value to geography.

I have a passport from the Governor-General of this province, which would be sufficient. The expenses incurred would be very moderate.

I have, &c. (Signed)

FREDK. S. A. BOURNE.

Inclosure 2 in No. 117.

Sir,

Mr. O'Conor to Mr. Bourne.

Peking, September 9, 1885. IN REPLY to your application dated the 10th August last, I have to instruct you to proceed upon a journey of a somewhat more extended nature than you have proposed to undertake.

It appears to me desirable to gain a more detailed acquaintance with the commercial relations and requirements of those provinces of Southern China which border upon Tonquin, seeing that it is difficult under present conditions to anticipate in what manner or degree the trading facilities given to France by the Franco-Chinese Treaty may be expected to affect British interests.

The direction which your journey will take must of course depend upon the quiet and undisturbed condition of the country; but as a general programme you will travel from the city of Pu-erh Fu along the southern frontier of Yunnan and Kwangsi, passing not very far from Laokai and Kaobang, and probably ending your southern travel at Nan-ning Fu, whence you will return through Kweichow to Ch'ung-ch'ing.

The main purpose of your journey will be to inquire into the commercial condition and communications of South-western China, and the probable effect which the trade clauses of the Treaty recently concluded between France and China will exercise upon British commerce with the inland markets of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Yünnan.

Although I refrain from binding you to observe these instructions in too literal a sense, you will nevertheless be guided by their tenour, and will adhere to them as strictly as circumstances permit. You will on no account enter any district to which the Chinese authorities are disinclined to allow you to proceed. You will bear in mind that the purpose of your journey is to inquire into the trade of the country, and that other subjects, however interesting they may appear, are to be strictly subordinated to that considera- tion.

You should start within a few days of the receipt of these instructions, and in such interviews as you may have with local officials it will be sufficient for you to inform them that you are travelling for general purposes in the way in which your predecessors at Ch'ung-ch'ing were accustomed to travel. It is undesirable for the officials to think that your journey has any relation to the question of Franco-Chinese trade on the Touquin border.

You will keep me acquainted with your movements, and will report to me, as occasion may serve, upon the general object of your mission. Your expenses will be moderate, and should not, I consider, exceed 5 dollars a-day.

In conducting your inquiries you will devote special consideration to the trade communications of Pakhoi with the Province of Kwangsi, so far as you may be able to judge of the question from Nan-ning Fu, which city, I bave reason to believe, is at present almost the terminus of British imports from Pakhoi.

I am unwilling that you should attempt to make a running survey of the country you pass through. Such work is very severe, and would occupy too much of your time, which inay be more profitably devoted to the main purpose of your expedition.