CO129-347 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [4-6] — Page 311

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South to North across that Province dated the 21st. March,

1902, (forwarded under cover of General Gascoigne's DesTM

-patch of the 25th. June, 1902). In this connection I

would also invite Your Lordship's attention to the Des-

-patch of His Britannic Majesty's Consul at Hanoi to Sir

B. Grey, dated the 1st. instant, describing the risings

and tumults in Annam and Tongking, which have not been

without their effect upon the neighbouring Chinese Pro-

-vinces, for I learn in subsequent telegrams from Mr.

Carlisle that the revolutionaries have seized Hokow (J)

the post of the Imperial Maritime Customs on the Tongking-

-Yunnan frontier and have cut the telegraph lines between

Tongking and Mengtsze on the one side and Mengtsze and

Yunnan-fu on the other.

7.

I consider it therefore my duty

to warn Your Lordship in reference to the present proposals

of the French that if the British Government accedes to

them the result will be (as I am informed) to imperil the

confidence at present reposed in us by the Chinese, and to

associate the British in schemes which are bound to fail

with a consequential loss of prestige, apart from the fact

that the scheme of a Railway from Canton to Indo-China is

entirely opposed to British interests, and I conclude that

the