round the spur to the north of Tengyüeh town would, I understand, bring the railway into the Shweli Valley, down which it might run to Namkhan. This, it is true, would only help it forward one stage towards Yungchang, and would leave the formidable watershed of the Shweli-Salween basins to be negotiated. Beyond this, again, lies the still more formidable watershed of the Salween-Mekong. This last, once crossed, the road to Hsia-Kuan is comparatively simple. What, however, has never, as far as I am aware, been noted in this connection is the fact that, although these watersheds run at right angles to the line of advance, they are provided with many lateral valleys that should facilitate this advance. Advantage has, indeed, been taken of these lateral valleys to form the Chinese high road, but not such complete advantage as a modern engineer would take, provided with high explosives and compressed air drills,
No specialist in mountain railway building has, I believe, reported on the country between Tengyüeh and Yangpi.
While for these reasons I would not unreservedly acknowledge, with Mr. Litton, that "any extension of a line beyond Tengyüeh towards Yungchang is quite hopeless," I am prepared to admit that it would be exceedingly expensive, so expensive that, if we are to make an effort to retain the trade of Tali and our influence in its neighbourhood, we should see first if we cannot find an easier, and therefore cheaper, approach.
Such approach is believed to have been found in the projected extension of the Lashio line through Yün Chou to Mitu. If this belief is justified, then, as far as questions of rivalry with the French are concerned, we should not dissipate our energies by building a railway from Bhamo to Tengyüeh, but should seek to complete the Lashio-Kunlong line, and to continue it to Tali, if not to Yunnan Fu.
There is another and a greater reason for preferring any section of the proposed Kunlong ferry line to a mere local railway to Tengyüeh—always assuming the practicability of indefinitely extending the former. Just as the Russians have succeeded in constructing a trans-Asiatic railway in the north, so is it certain that others will eventually succeed in constructing its rival of the south. From the Bosphorus, down the Euphrates Valley, across Persia, Beluchistan, India, Burmah, the Great Southern Railway of Asia must some time be made; and we ought to look forward to that time and subordinate, as far as possible, all minor schemes to the one trunk line. I do not, of course, mean to say that we should in the meanwhile build no railway that will not fall in with this line; but only that when we have, as here, a choice of routes of penetration eastward into Yünnan from Burmah, we should attach greater importance to the route that will eventually form part of the grand trunk road. This brings me back to the question whether the Lashio-Kunlong-Mitu route is on the proper line of the trunk road, and whether that route has been proved to be practicable.
A glance at the map will sufficiently answer the former question; if Mandalay is to be on the trunk road, then a straight line drawn thence through Kuniong and Yün Chou would, if extended, pass through Yunnan Fu and thence to Hankow. The real crux is the question of practicability. Now when, in the interests of the Yunnan Company, the late Lieutenant Watts-Jones surveyed the Nam-ting Valley, he did so with fair thoroughness, and established the possibility of building a railway to Yün Chou. From Mitu, again, on the other side of the Mekong, there remains no doubt that the railway can be carried on to Yunnan Fu, with, I should repeat, a branch to Tali. It is the hundred miles or so between Yün Chou and Mitu, and in particular the passage of the Mekong, that call for more careful examination. Lieutenant Watts-Jones admittedly scamped the passage of the Mekong; nor were, I understand, the surveys of Captain (now Major) Davies other than "flying."
I would, then, put in the first front of measures to be taken to meet the situation created by the advance of French influence, the mission of an engineer who has had experience in mountain railway building, to examine in detail the country between Yün Chou and Mitu, and to settle authoritatively, once for all, the question whether a railway can be constructed between those points. I should be prepared, with my Minister's permission, to accompany such engineer who, I would suggest, might come by way of Tonquin, along the course of the French line, to Yunnan Fu. He should arrive at Laokai by the beginning of November.
If he decided that the railway is practicable, then I would urge that its construction should be our first care. Tali Fu once attained, Yungchang and Tengyüeh would necessarily fall within our sphere of influence, whereas a mere advance to Tengyüeh would not secure for us the trade of Tali when the French line has reached Yunnan Fu.
I must not be understood to maintain that it is the duty of India alone to continue the Lashio line beyond the borders of the Indian Empire. Mr. Litton is quite right in describing this as an "Imperial scheme." At the same time it is India that will be
primarily affected by the growth of French influence and trade in Yünnan. Of the influence I need not speak; as regards trade it is obvious that the French Government and the French Railway Company will, very properly, endeavour to replace British and Indian goods in Yünnan by those of French provenance. I need only instance cotton where the Tonquin mills will be encouraged to compete against those of Bombay. India might, therefore, I submit, fairly enough be asked to again send an officer, on this occasion a railway engineer, to examine the country between Mitu and Yün Chou.
I have permitted myself to traverse at some length Mr. Litton's contention that in discussing the question of relations between Burmah and Yunnan, anything beyond a mere reference to the "proposed railway extension via Kunlong would appear to be irrelevant."
To my mind the whole future of those relations turns largely round this extension. I will not now, however, do more than emphasize a point which appears never to have occurred to Mr. Litton, namely, that the true objective of the extension from Kunlong should not be Szechuan—that is, very literally, a side issue—but Shanghae.
If Mr. Litton had been content to regard this question of constructing a railway from Bhamo to Tengyüeh as a matter of local importance, and not, as he has done, as a question of Yunnan politics, I could have gone the whole way with him. I entirely agree as to the desirability on commercial grounds of building a light railway (I would suggest a mono-rail) from Bhamo to Tengyüeh, and, with Mr. Litton, I believe that it would pay. To the advantages which he enumerates I would add that such a railway would greatly facilitate the scheme for the refund of transit duty on British goods sent into Yunnan via Rangoon and Bhamo, as it would make it possible to convey those goods in their original packages intact to Tengyüeh. It would, again, make it easy for any one in the employ of the Indian Government, who might desire to avail himself of the short language leave for the lower course in Chinese, to proceed to Tengyüeh for that purpose; while it would shorten by more than a week the journey to Yunnan Fu of those who proposed to follow here the higher course.
It is only when the Bhamo-Tengyüeh Railway is advocated as an effectual counter to French movements, and as a preferable alternative to the Kunlong extension, that I find myself at variance with Mr. Litton.
His proposal, however, for the immediate negotiation with the Chinese authorities of a continuation from Lungchang to Tengyüeh of the mule road at present under repair by the engineers of your Government, I cannot altogether indorse. I think we should wait until the section now being constructed is finished. In the Agreement with the Taot'ai of the I-hsi it was stated (§ 7) that "when the construction of this road" [Kulikha to Lungchang] "is complete the engineers will return home, and thoroughfares elsewhere that require repair shall be duly considered by the Road Improvements Committee.
The local officials will engage workmen to undertake the repairs, and the Burmah Government will not intervene." If within so short a time of the signature of this Agreement we were to move for the further intervention of the Burmah Government, we could hardly fail to arouse suspicion. If, on the other hand, we wait until the section now being repaired is complete, we should be able to point to the manifest advantages of this last, and to suggest its continuation in the interests of the Chinese themselves.
Furthermore, if the Government of Burmah were to offer, as Mr. Litton proposes, to construct this mule road at its own expense, I think that here again we should be suspected, et dona ferentes. Disinterested kindness the Mandarins would not believe in, and they would not understand how expenditure on a mule road in a neighbouring country would be "a good investment" for a Government that had no territorial designs upon it.
In the case of a railway the matter would present itself otherwise: for here we should have the precedent of the French line. The Chinese Government may have entertained suspicions of the real motives of the French in pressing for this Concession; they may, indeed, still entertain them. But the fact remains that the Concession has been granted; and as such a Concession has been granted to the French, it would appear only natural that the British should ask for, and obtain, one similar. Any British Company that would be prepared to accept like terms with the French, should have little difficulty in coming to an agreement at Yunnan Fu for the construction of a railway from Bhamo to Tengyüeh. What those terms are you will have seen from the copy inclosed in my immediately preceding despatch.
The third question raised in Mr. Litton's Memorandum is the vexed one of the rescission of the Rule forbidding the transit of Yunnan opium across Burmah. I admit the force of Mr. Litton's arguments, and I am inclined to agree with him that in this
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round the spur to the north of Tengyuch town would, I understand, bring the railway into the Shweli Valley, down which it might run to Namkhan. This, it is true, would only help it forward one stage towards Yungchang, and would leave the formidable watershed of the Shweli-Salween basins to be negotiated. Beyond this, again, lies the still more formidable watershed of the Salween-Mekong. This last, once crossed, the road to Hsia-Kuan is comparatively simple. What, however, has never, as far as I am aware, been noted in this connection is the fact that, although these watersheds run at right angles to the line of advance, they are provided with many lateral valleys that should facilitate this advance. Advantage has, indeed, been taken of these lateral valleys to form the Chinese high road, but not such complete advantage as a modern engineer would take, provided with high explosives and compressed air drills,
No specialist in mountain railway building has, I believe, reported on the country between Tengyüeh and Yangpi.
While for these reasons I would not unreservedly acknowledge, with Mr. Litton, that " any extension of a line beyond Tengyuch towards Yungchang is quite hopeless," I am prepared to admit that it would be exceedingly expensive, so expensive that, if we are to make an effort to retain the trade of Tali and our influence in its neighbourhood, we should see first if we cannot find an easier, and therefore cheaper, approach.
Such approach is believed to have been found in the projected extension of the Lashio line through Yün Chou to Mitu. If this belief is justified, then, as far as questions of rivalry with the French are concerned, we should not dissipate our energies by building a railway from Bhamo to Tengyüch, but should seek to complete the Lashio- Kunlong line, and to continue it to Tali, if not to Yunnan Fu.
There is another and a greater reason for preferring any section of the proposed Kunlong ferry line to a mere local railway to Tengyüeh-always assuming the practicability of indefinitely extending the former. Just as the Russians have succeeded in constructing a trans-Asiatic railway in the north, so is it certain that others will eventually succeed in constructing its rival of the south. From the Bosphorus, down the Euphrates Valley, across Persia, Beluchistan, India, Burmah, the Great Southern Railway of Asia must some time be made; and we ought to look forward to that time and subordinate, as far as possible, all minor schemes to the one trunk line. I do not, of course, mean to say that we should in the meanwhile build no railway that will not fall in with this line; but only that when we have, as here, a choice of routes of penetration eastward into Yünnan from Burmah, we should attach greater importance to the route that will eventually form part of the grand trunk road. This brings me back to the question whether the Lashio-Kunlong-Mitu route is on the proper line of the trunk road, and whether that route has been proved to be practicable."
A glance at the map will sufficiently answer the former question; if Mandalay is to be on the trunk road, then a straight line drawn thence through Kuniong and Yün Chou would, if extended, pass through Yunnan Fu and thence to Hankow. The real crux is the question of practicability. Now when, in the interests of the Yunnan Company, the late Lieutenant Watts-Jones surveyed the Nam-ting Valley, he did so with fair thoroughness, and established the possibility of building a railway to Yün Chou. From Mitu, again, on the other side of the Mekong, there remains no doubt that the railway can be carried on to Yunnan Fu, with, I should repeat, a branch to Tali. It is the hundred miles or so between Yün Chou and Mitu, and in particular the passage of the Mekong, that call for more careful examination. Lieutenant Watts-Jones admittedly scamped the passage of the Mekong; nor were, I understand, the surveys of Captain (now Major) Davies other than "flying."
I would, then, put in the first front of measures to be taken to meet the situation created by the advance of French influence, the mission of an engineer who has had experience in mountain railway building, to examine in detail the country between Yün Chou and Mitu, and to settle authoritatively, once for all, the question whether a railway can be constructed between those points. I should be prepared, with my Minister's permission, to accompany such engineer who, I would suggest, might come by way of Tonquin, along the course of the French line, to Yunnan Fu. lle should arrive at Laokai by the beginning of November.
If he decided that the railway is practicable, then I would urge that its construction should be our first care. Tali Fu once attained, Yungchang and Tengyüch would necessarily fall within our sphere of influence, whereas a mere advance to Tengyüeh would not secure for us the trade of Tali when the French line has reached Yuunan Fu.
I must not be understood to maintain that it is the duty of India alone to continue the Lashio line beyond the borders of the Indian Empire. Mr. Litton is quite right in describing this as an "Imperial scheme.' At the same time it is India that will be
yarn,
8
primarily affected by the growth of French influence and trade in Yünnan. Of the influence I need not speak; as regards trade it is obvious that the French Government and the French Railway Company will, very properly, endeavour to replace British and Indian goods in Yünnan by those of French provenance. I need only instance cotton where the Tonquin mills will be encouraged to compete against those of Bombay. India might, therefore, I submit, fairly enough be asked to again send an officer, on this occasion a railway cngineer, to examine the country between Mitu and Yün Chou.
I have permitted myself to traverse at some length Mr. Litton's contention that iu discussing the question of relations between Burmah and Yunnan, anything beyond a mere reference to the "proposed railway extension via Kunlong would appear to be irrelevant."
To my mind the whole future of those relations turns largely round this extension. I will not now, however, do more than emphasize a point which appears never to have occurred to Mr. Litton, namely, that the true objective of the extension from Kunlong should not be Szechuan-that is, very literally, a side issue--but Shanghae.
If Mr. Litton had been content to regard this question of constructing a railway from Bhamo to Tengyüch as a matter of local importance, and not, as he has done, as a question of Yunnan politics, I could have gone the whole way with him. I entirely agree as to the desirability on commercial grounds of building a light railway (I would suggest a mono-rail) from Bhamo to Tengyüeh, and, with Mr. Litton, I believe that it would pay. To the advantages which he enumerates I would add that such a railway would greatly facilitate the scheme for the refund of transit duty on British goods sent into Yunnan via Rangoon and Bhamo, as it would make it possible to convey those goods in their original packages intact to Tengyueh. It would, again, make it easy for any one in the employ of the Indian Government, who might desire to avail himself of the short language leave for the lower course in Chinese, to proceed to Tengyuch for that purpose; while it would shorten by more than a week the journey to It is only when the Yunnan Fu of those who proposed to follow here the higher course. Bhamo-Tengyüeh Railway is advocated as an effectual counter to French movements, and as a preferable alternative to the Kunlong extension, that I find myself at variauce with Mr. Litton.
His proposal, however, for the immediate negotiation with the Chinese authorities of a continuation from Lungchang to Tengyüeh of the mule road at present under repair by the engineers of your Government, I cannot altogether indorse. I think we should wait until the section now being constructed is finished. In the Agreement with the Taot'ai of the I-hsi it was stated (§ 7) that "when the construction of this road" [Kulikha to Lungchang] "is complete the engineers will return home, and thoroughfares elsewhere that require repair shall be duly considered by the Road Improvements Committee.
The local officials will engage workmen to undertake
the repairs, and the Burmah Government will not intervene." If within so short a time of the signature of this Agreement we were to move for the further intervention of the Burmah Government, we could hardly fail to arouse suspicion. If, on the other hand, we wait until the section now being repaired is complete, we should be able to point to the manifest advantages of this last, and to suggest its continuation in the interests of the Chinese themselves.
Furthermore, if the Government of Burmah were to offer, as Mr. Litton proposes, to construct this mule road at its own expense, I think that here again we should be suspected, et dona ferentes. Disinterested kindness the Mandarins would not believe in, and they would not understand how expenditure on a mule road in a neighbouring country would be "a good investment " for a Government that had no territorial designs upon it.
In the case of a railway the matter would present itself otherwise: for here we should have the precedent of the French line. The Chinese Government may have entertained suspicions of the real motives of the French in pressing for this Concession; they may, indeed, still entertain them. But the fact remains that the Concession has been granted; and as such a Concession has been granted to the French, it would appear only natural that the British should ask for, and obtain, one similar. Any British Company that would be prepared to accept like terms with the French, should have little difficulty in coming to an agreement at Yunnan Fu for the construction of a railway from Bhamo to Tengyüeh. What those terms are you will have seen from the copy inclosed in my immediately preceding despatch.
The third question raised in Mr. Litton's Memorandum is the vexed one of the rescission of the Rule forbidding the transit of Yunnan opium across Burmah. I admit the force of Mr. Litton's arguments, and I am inclined to agree with him that in this
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