392
j
2
It would be altogether a mistake to believe that the people of Yunnan are opposed to a British railway from Burmah to this city. There is not the slightest reason to apprehend in this province any such struggle as that which you speak of as provoked in Chekiang. Everything, indeed, points the other way. The handful of pestilent literati here, after two years of agitation, have failed to arouse among the people of Yunnan any sort of enthusiasm for a Chinese railway to Szechuan, still less for one from Tengyuel to Burmah. As I have shown from their own published accounts, scarcely any private individual has been found willing to subscribe. On the contrary, the call to pay some 6 per cent, more for land tax in the form of railway subscription, coming as it does on the top of the suppression of opium, has roused very considerable discontent. I may mention that in this district the Governor-General has, despite the Edict allowing ten years' gradual suppression, and his own Proclamations allowing three years, caused all poppies to be forcibly destroyed. Were the Yunnanese not by nature a peaceable and submissive folk, there would be a strong provincial opposition, not to railway construction by foreigners, but to the proceedings of the present Governor-General and the small reactionary gang of soi-disant Railway Directors.
As regards our Tengyueh Railway scheme in particular, the Taiping Valley, through which the line would run, is inhabited almost entirely by Shans, while the Chinese traders of Tengyueh town, who constantly visit Bhamo and often Mandalay, would seem to be altogether in favour of its construction. They certainly are not in favour of the Chinese Company, for, as far as I can learn, they have not bought a single share in it.
I have not, however, been advocating at this stage the demand from the Chinese Government of a definite Railway Concession, so much as insistence on their formal recognition of our right to absolutely equal treatment with France in Yünnan. I venture, with the utmost diffidence, to dissent from the view that the enforcement of that right could not now be attained by diplomatic methods. I am convinced that if His Majesty's Government were (let it be said, by communication through the Chinese Minister in London) to firmly insist on such recognition the Chinese Government would certainly yield. Quite apart from the most-favoured-nation clause of the Burmah-China Treaty, and the correspondence of March 1902, the principle that we are entitled to equal treatment with France in Yunnan is so obviously just that China could look in no quarter for support should she deny or oppose it. If, moreover (as I have said in an earlier despatch), the Chinese Government could be led to understand that, the principle once conceded, we should be ready to consider modifications in its practical application, that Government would be still less likely to hold out.
You do not refer in this despatch to the fact (as reported in my Confidential despatch No. 14 of the 29th November last) that the Throne has instructed Governor-General Hei that it has called for a report from the Cheng-wu Ch'u and the Wai-wu Pu on our claim to construct a railway in Yünnan; nor do you allude to the growing distrust and distaste said to be expressed by the Central Government for so-called “demonstrations in the provinces.” If the former (as I have no doubt) is correct, and the "popular" latter story well founded, then it would seem that the Peking Government would not be indisposed to make a compromise with us, preferring to transfer his Excellency Hsi-liang and to snub the literati rather than to run the risk, however remote, of a collision with India.
In this connection you will have noticed that in the Army Scheme for all China lately presented by the Lu-chün Pu and approved by the Throne it is proposed that within five years the forces in this province (computed in the Memorial to consist of one brigade of drilled infantry and two battalions of artillery) shall be raised to two “chen,” or army divisions. The reason given is that "Yünnan controls the frontier posts of the south-west, and it is of the utmost importance to collect there a strong military force to co-operate in the scheme of defence." If we continue to delay, and do not now firmly require recognition by China of our right to equal treatment with France in Yunnan, then some future Governor-General of his present Excellency's type will, encouraged by what he will believe to be an overwhelming force, commit such actions—as, for example, ostentatious administration west of "Scott's line"—as will oblige us at length to maintain our prestige by force of arms.
In the meantime that prestige is being very seriously affected by the delay of the Indian Government to insist firmly on its right to build the Tengyueh Railway and to extend it, if the Government sees fit, to Tali and Yunnan-fu.
We have gone just far enough—in our surveys to Tali and our proposals of 1906 for the construction of a railway to Tengyueh—to make our present inaction appear a victory for the impudent "bluff" that inserted the words "and Tengyueh" in the title of the exclusively Chinese Yunnan-Szechuan Railway Company. We have swallowed this affront, and we are therefore, here in Yunnan, of no account. The result is that this Consulate is no longer consulted, as was the case when Ting Chih-t'ai was contemplating a railway to Szechuan and an international Settlement at Yunnan-fu (see my despatch of the 11th March, 1905), and it is hopeless to expect—for the matter has a commercial side also—that any contracts for the supply of machinery for mints, arsenals, or other public works, or proffers of engagement as instructors or engineers will come our way.
The "friendly co-operation of the province," of which your despatch speaks, cannot be attained through any efforts on the part of this Consulate as long as the incumbent appears to be left without support from the Indian Government, on whose behalf he has been maintaining, vis-à-vis of the provincial Government, that British railway enterprise in Yunnan is entitled to equal privileges with French. It may be that the Government of India is waiting for the conclusion of the Thibetan Agreement before turning attention to its eastern frontier, but no intimation to that effect has reached me. It is more than two months since I submitted to Simla, by telegram through Maymyo on the 2nd December, the proposals set out in my despatch to you No. 46 of the 18th December. Those proposals, I cannot but believe, are practicable and such as should commend themselves to the Indian Government, yet they have not been even acknowledged, except in so far as the Government of Burmah have informed me of their due transmission.
If those proposals are favourably received at Simla, and if—for that, I submit, is the key to the problem—His Majesty's Government will formally require from China recognition of our equality with France in Yunnan, then I do not think that the prospect of overtaking our rivals need be regarded as remote. We should, once we began, work faster, and with less friction; and I am confident that our light electric railway would reach Yunnan-fu in ample time to take a full share in what is the real object of the French line, the traffic and trade of Szechuan.
I have, &c.
(Signed) W. H. WILKINSON.
P.S., February 8.—It is reported here among the Chinese that the French Government has agreed to sell the railway for 25 million taels (say, 85 million francs). This is less than the amount already spent on earthworks, tunnelling, and masonry. My colleague of France, whom I questioned yesterday on the subject, replies that it appears to him altogether unlikely, but that in any case he knows absolutely nothing about the matter.
W. H. W.
392
j
2
It would be altogether a mistake to believe that the people of Yunnan are opposed to a British railway from Burmah to this city. There is not the slightest reason to apprehend in this province any such struggle as that which you speak of as provoked in Chekiang. Everything, indeed, points the other way. The handful of pestilent literati here, after two years of agitation, have failed to arouse among the people of Yunnan any sort of enthusiasm for a Chinese railway to Szechuan, still less for one from Tengyuel to Burmah. As I have shown from their own published accounts, scarcely any private individual has been found willing to subscribe. On the contrary, the call to pay some 6 per cent, more for land tax in the form of railway subscription, coming as it does on the top of the suppression of opium, has roused very considerable discontent. I may mention that in this district the Governor-General has, despite the Edict allowing ten years' gradual suppression, and his own Proclamations allowing three years, caused all poppies to be forcibly destroyed. Were the Yunnanese not by nature a peaceable and submissive folk, there would be a strong provincial opposition, not to railway construe- tion by foreigners, but to the proceedings of the present Governor-General and the small reactionary gang of soi-disant Railway Directors.
As regards our Tengyueh Railway scheme in particular, the Taiping Valley, through which the line would run, is inhabited almost entirely by Shans, while the Chinese traders of Tengyueh town, who constantly visit Bhamo and often Mandalay, would seem to be altogether in favour of its construction. They certainly are not in favour of the Chinese Company, for, as far as I can learn, they have not bought a single share in it,
I have not, however, been advocating at this stage the demand from the Chinese Government of a definite Railway Concession, so much as insistence on their forinal recognition of our right to absolutely equal treatment with France in Yünnan. I venture, with the utmost diffidence, to dissent from the view that the enforcement of that right could not now be attained by diplomatic methods. I am convinced that if His Majesty's Government were (let it be said, by communication through the Chinese Minister in London) to firmly insist on such recognition the Chinese Government would certainly yield. Quite apart from the most-favoured-nation clause of the Burmah. China Treaty, and the correspondence of March 1902, the principle that we are entitled to equal treatment with France in Yunnan is so obviously just that China could look in no quarter for support should she deny or oppose it. If, morcover (as I have said in an earlier despatch), the Chinese Government could be led to understand that, the principle once conceded, we should be ready to consider modifications in its practical application, that Government would be still less likely to hold out.
You do not refer in this despatch to the fact (as reported in my Confidential despatch No. 14 of the 29th November last) that the Throne has instructed Governor- General Hei that it has called for a report from the Cheng-wu Ch'u and the Wai-wu Pu on our claim to construct a railway in Ÿünuan; nor do you allude to the growing distrust and distaste said to be expressed by the Central Government for so-called “ demonstrations in the provinces. If the former (as I have no doubt) is correct, and the "popular" latter story well founded, than it would seem that the Peking Government would not be indisposed to make a compromise with us, preferring to transfer his Excellency Hsi-liang and to snub the literati rather than to run the risk, however remote, of a collision with India.
In this connection you will have noticed that in the Army Scheme for all China lately presented by the Lu-chün Pu and approved by the Throne it is proposed that within five years the forces in this province (computed in the Memorial to consist of one brigade of drilled infantry and two battalions of artillery) shall be raised to two “chen," or army divisions. The reason given is that "Yünnan controls the frontier posts of the south-west, and it is of the utmost importance to collect there a strong military force to co-operate in the scheme of defence." firmly require recognition by China of our right to equal treatment with France in If we continue to delay, and do not now Yunnan, then some future Governor-General of his present Excellency's type will, encouraged by what he will believe to be an overwhelming force, commit such actions-- as, for example, ostentatious administration west of "Scott's line "as will oblige us at length to maintain our prestige by force of arms.
In the meantime that prestige is being very seriously affected by the delay of the Indian Government to insist firmly on its right to build the Tengyueh Railway and to extend it, if the Government sees fit, to Tali and Yunnan-fu.
We have gone just far
enough-in our surveys to Tali and our proposals of 1906 for the construction of a rail- way to Tengyueh--to make our present inaction appear a victory for the impudent "bluff" that inserted the words "and Tengyueh "in the title of the exclusively Chinese
3
Yunnan-Szechuan Railway Company." We have swallowed this affront, and we are therefore, here in Yunnan, of no account. The result is that this Consulate is no longer consulted, as was the case when Ting Chih-t'ai was contemplating a railway to Szechuan and an international Settlement at Yunnan-fu (see my despatch of the 11th March, 1905), and it is hopeless to expect--for the matter has a commercial side also-that any contracts for the supply of machinery for mints, arsenals, or other public works, or proffers of engagement as instructors or engineers will come our way.
The "friendly co-operation of the province," of which your despatch speaks, cannot be attained through any efforts on the part of this Consulate as long as the incumbent appears to be left without support from the Indian Government, on whose behalf he has been maintaining, vis-à-vis of the provincial Government, that British railway enterprise in Yunnan is entitled to equal privileges with French. It may be that the Government of India is waiting for the conclusion of the Thibetan Agreement before turning attention to its eastern frontier, but no intimation to that effect has reached me. It is more than two months since I submitted to Simla, by telegram through Maymyo on the 2nd December, the proposals set out in my despatch to you No. 46 of the 18th December. Those proposals, I cannot but believe, are practicable and such as should commend themselves to the Indian Government, yet they have not been even acknowledged, except in so far as the Government of Burmah have informed me of their due transmission.
If those proposals are favourably received at Simla, and if-for that, I submit, is the key to the problem-His Majesty's Government will formally require from China recognition of our equality with France in Yunnan, then I do not think that the prospect of overtaking our rivals need be regarded as remote. We should, once we began, work faster, and with less friction; and I am confident that our light electric railway would reach Yunnan-fu in ample time to take a full share in what is the real object of the Trench line, the traffic and trade of Szechuan.
I have, &c.
(Signed) W. H. WILKINSON.
P.S., February 8.-It is reported here among the Chinese that the French Government has agreed to sell the railway for 25 million taels (say, 85 million francs). This is less than the amount already spent on earthworks, tunnelling, and masonry. My colleague of France, whom I questioned yesterday on the subject, replies that it appears to him altogether unlikely, but that in any case he knows absolutely nothing about the
W. H. W.
matter.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.