CO129-235 - Public Offices - 1887 — Page 329

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delimit the frontier of a country where they can't show themselves. border should have been well in hand, and something more held than was wanted, before the question of the frontier was entered on. When its no longer a matter of force, but one of argument, enlivened by an occasional act of treachery, there are not, many people better able to hold their own than Chinese officials.

The Treaty and Commercial Regulations are full of mistakes, due to ignorance of the Chinese and of the commercial and physical relations between the plateau and the plain. Opium should have been allowed to pass through Tonquin, for Yünnan imports are paid for in opium. Salt should have been allowed to pass into China, for there has been for many years a large import.

Mêng-tzu, a healthy town on the southern edge of the plateau (4,420 feet above the sea), should have been made the entrepôt of the Sang-koi trade and the residence of a French Consul, instead of Laokai, which is at the foot of the descent from the plateau, and which has a deadly climate. Some assurance should have been obtained as to the care of the road between Laokai and Mêng-tzü, the worst part of the route, neglect to repair which will suffice to check the development of the trade.

There are all the obstacles to the success of the Laokai route mentioned in my Report, and further there, namely, that the French seem to comtemplate a system of passports and surveillance on the border, and that the Chinese officials are opposed to the development of trade over this route. The first objection is a much more serious one than it looks to Europeans. The Chinese have a well-founded dread of all officials, and the mere fact of having to apply for a passport will drive them away. It is in vain to try and persuade Chinese that an official is honest. I have had an amusing instance of this here lately: a Chinaman to whom a year's rent is due from a British subject will not be induced to petition the Consul at I-ch'ang, lest that official should do him some grievous harm. In China all are free to travel when, where, and how they please, so long as they keep the peace, and a system of passports would be regarded as a means of extortion, which, indeed, it would be very apt to become in the hands of native clerks. The second objection is also serious, because li-kin levics are arbitrary, and even when nominally fixed the printed Tariffs are never followed. The Tariff charge is then a maximum one; the amount actually to be paid is constantly changed from head-quarters, and is often a matter of compromise with the Collector. With so loose a system it is always easy to penalize a particular route and to hamper a new one, The French will have to find men sufficiently adroit to fight the cause of the Laokai route with the officials before it can greatly flourish.

I have shown in my Report that the route between Kwang-ei and Tonquin by Lung-chou will not be able to rival the present route by Pak-hoi unless a railway were constructed to the Tso-chiang, and that, even then, the difficult navigation of that river would be an obstacle. But when the French begin a railway, the Chinese could probably be induced to construct one themselves, from Pak-hoi to Nan-ning Fu, or grant a concession for its construction. It would be a short and easy line, and would completely take the wind out of the French sails.

The French have been very foolish in neglecting the advice of their missionaries, who have a knowledge of the country, people, and languages of South-west China and the neighbouring districts, an unscrupulousness and an enthusiasm for their country which would make them most valuable allies. In almost every one of the catastrophes that have befallen the French in Tonquin and Annam notice of danger was given them by the missionaries, and neglected, because "le cléricalisme c'est l'ennemi." So little is known of the strength of the French missionaries in these parts that the following particulars may be worth recording.

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The Church of Rome has divided the Chinese Empire between the Catholic missions, so that each Society is in sole possession of its own sphere. The provinces of Ssu-ch'uan (with Thibet), Yunnan, Kuei-chou, Kwantung, and Kwangsi have been allotted to the "Missions Etrangères" of Paris. A glance at the map will show how compact a Franco-Chinese Empire this territory, together with Burmah and Tonquin, might have formed. Leaving out the two Kwang provinces, about the missions in which I have no direct knowledge, there are:-

In Ssu-ch'uan, Eastern

[506]

Yunnan

Kuei-chou

Westero

Southern

Thibet (borders of)

That is about

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French Priests.

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