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opinion more or less openly expressed by respectable people of their officials does not lead to the belief than any response will be made to the appeal for funds.
I have, &c. (Signed) H. A. OTTE WILL.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Extract from a Pamphlet respecting the Construction of the Yunnan-Szechuan Railway.
(Translation.)
IF built by ourselves, a hundred advantages and no disadvantages. Why? Foreign countries make themselves rich, keep armics, have foreign intercourse all over the world, do not receive insults from others, because they have railways. Railways increase their trade and protect their resources. We Chinese did not know the advantages of railways, but have gradually learnt. The Hankow-Canton Railway was promised to foreigners, and has been redeemed. Chekiang, Kiangsu, Szechuan, and Anhui Railways are being managed by natives. If we had the Yunnan-Szechuan Railway, our native goods, Pu-erh tea, Tali marble, Hsuan-wei hams, Ho-ching wines, Tung-hai soy, China root,
“san chi" (a drug from K'ai-hua), "huang-lien," musk, deers' horns, bears' gall, cotton and cloth, minerals, opium, dried apricots and fruit, could be carried away and money brought back. The silks and medicines of Szechuan and sundries
be brought to Yunnan and bought cheap. Our produce quickly sold to other places, theirs brought to us. The cost of transport lessened and trade improved, with advantages to both.
With the railway built, there will be more travelling, more inns, more movement. Ten taels sold in a day will become twenty. Pack animals and carriers earning I tael will earn 2 taels. We have ourselves seen it with our own eyes and heard it with our own cars, and we are not talking nonsense. One day's journey takes you as far as ten by pack. Scholars, travellers, and goods can be taken thousands of h in two or three days without the expenses of pack travelling and with no fear of flood, fire, or robbers. In times of famine people can be easily moved away and food-stuffs sent, and the people be saved from dying on the spot. Soldiers are a numerous body, and cannot be moved easily, because we have no railways. We keep some 100,000, and now, with railways, 50,000 will be enough If a disturbance occurs in the east or the west, they can oe easily moved, and there would be looting of the people on their route, and it would be marvellously quickly dene.
When main lines are built, branch lines can be made to fetch minerals and wood. Yünnan has gold, silver, lead, iron, and tin, wood and stone are everywhere, they are inexhaustible, and railways will confer inestimable benefits. We have mentioned some of the advantages of railways, but not all.
Yunnan nearly suffered a great calamity, but the Viceroy Ting approved and forwarded to the Throne a Petition from the gentry stating that they would themselves build the Yunnan-Szechuan Railway. Regulations have been drawn up and an office opened. This is now Yunnan's opportunity. Very much money is, however, required for this railway, and we want everybody to help. Some funds have been collected, but they are insuficient, and we ask everybody to take up bonds. They are of three kinds-tor 5 taels, 10 taels, and 50 taels. The rich can take up several of the 50 tacls, the middle class the 10 taels, and the poor the 5 taels. The matter is of the most pressing necessity for our province, and must be managed by our united energy. Everybody can see that the Yunnan-Szechuan Railway is a question affecting our life and property, everybody must therefore wish to take up bonds, and not one ouly, but several to do so early to insure its speedy completion. The sooner it is built the sooner we gain its advantages. It is so self-evident that everybody will see the point, and we trust that none will get angry and make trouble. All that is wanted is that nobody will prefer their money, that officials, gentry, scholars, and commons, men and women, young and old, will pay out their money, either by an individual taking several, The matter then becomes tens, or hundreds of bonds, or several combining to take one.
feasible.
In Yüuman there are 26,000,000 or 27,000,000 men.
If everybody contributes
1 tael, we shall obtain more than the 20,000,000 taels required. if they look upon it
as not concerning themselves, we shall not get the sum.
Bonds will bring their own profit. On issue a document will be given which can be presented at the railway office yearly for interest. When the railway makes great
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profits they will be shared amongst the bondholders. It is safer than trade. Bonds inay increase in value. Why? When the railway is built and is making money, other men will want bonds, and will pay increased sums to obtain them, e.g., it have a
you 50-tacl bond, you will be able to sell it for 700 or 800. It frequently happens abroad. Japanese railway bonds of 50 yen have frequently been sold for 750 and more. The
(Shan-yang) 50-yen bonds for over 600. The
(Mei-chou) Railway is built through a sparsely populated country, and the bondholders were few at first, but 100-yen bonds are now sold for over 600 yen. What kind of trade shows profits like this? Other trade have losses as well as profits, but this is ail profits and no losses.
The cure is
We said above Yünnan suffered from a disease. We want it cured. this railway. When it is built we shall be master in our own house. Our fields and riches will be ours. So we ask you to consider. To take your own money, to run your own concern, will not only bring you a profit, but will consolidate your affairs, and will be a satisfaction. In the times in which we live it is everybody's duty to safeguard their native place, and that without any direct profit to themselves. We want everybody to come forward and not be ashamed of being a Yünnan man---all the more that now they will gain large profits from a small sum. The bond can always be sold to a friend or handed down to descendants, and is unlike the "Chao-hsin" bonds, which are only worth 10 per cent, or 20 per cent. of their face value. That was an official affair, and so uot very satisfactory. This railway is to be jointly managed by officials and merchants. The regulations are comprehensive, and no abuses can creep in. If do not believe
you
us and prefer your money, you are harming a dying man, It is easy to call a doctor to eure him; but if he will not part with his money, or take the medicine, and lets himself die, who is there living who would die like that without one effort?
We have felt bound to tell you at length. Yüunan is our own country. We must use our own money for our own affairs. To safeguard Yunnan will be our happiness. If others come to build the line we cannot foretell the consequences. We therefore beg our fellow villagers to do nothing useless, to save their money, and do their best to help on the building of the line. When the line has been built by us, the profits will be ours, and foreigners will not be able to meddle with it. To rule others and not to be ruled by them is our ambition. Some of us at Peking are watching anxiously, and kuow that this railway, if built by us, will confer a hundred benefits and cause no evils; but if built by foreigners there will be a hundred evils and no benefits. We have accordingly written this pamphlet to inform the Headmen of our native villages of the facts of the case, and beg them carefully to consider whether or not our view is right.
(No. 13. Confidential)
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Consul Ottewill to Sir J. Jordan,
Sir,
Tengyueh, April 26, 1907. I HAVE the honour to report that I have been informed that au appeal for funds for the construction of the Tengyueh Railway, similar to that inclosed in my Immediately preceding despatch with regard to the proposed Yunnan-Szechuan Railway, has been made by the Chinese authorities. I do not think there will be any
great response.
No bonds have been sold at the Tengyuch office during the four months it has been opened,
A direct contribution has been levied from the Sub-Prefect and the Taotai. The former has to subscribe 500 taels a-year, and the latter 1,200 taels. The Taotai has promptly cut the salaries he pays the Customs deputies at the out-stations 4 taels each monthly, and I suppose he will manage to make up the sum without much difficulty.
Ting Total, one of the Directors of the Chinese Tengyueh Railway Company, left this for his home at Ho Ching-chou about the 10th February last, after having been here about a couple of months. I have been told that he expressed the opinion privately that the Chinese would not be able to build that of the Tali Railway themselves, although naturally he would not admit so much to any foreigner.
I have, &c. (Signed) H. A. OTTEWILL.
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