Γ.
2
There are 117 tunnels of a total length of 94 miles. The bridge at kilometre 112, linking two tunnels divided by a chasm-a marvellous piece of engineering---is 65 metres in length.
The length of the railway from Laokai Yuunan-fu is 465 kilom. (296 miles). The Namti Valley section Laokai to Lahati, is 71 kilom. (45 miles).
The journey from Hanoi to Yünuan-fu is scheduled for three days, first day Hanoi to Laokai (1), Laokai to Amichou (2), Amichou to Yünnan-fu (3). A table giving the freights, supplied by His Majesty's consul at Hanoi, is added at the end of
this note.
These rates are, I understand, the maximum and liable to reduction. The reduction depends chiefly on the competition of other routes, e.g., West River, Szechuan, and Burmah. The two last named cannot compete even against the maximum tariff to Yunnan-fu.
The railway will have cost, I have good reason for saying, not less than 8,000.000Z., and its upkeep for the next three years is expected to he very heavy. Railway experts give three years as the period after which the line may be free from serious slips during the rainy season. In 1909 all traffic was suspended on the line from July to September, and again after a short interval was again blocked, no less than I was told that fifty-three slips having taken place in the beginning of November.
M. Bodin, an exceptionally capable and experienced engineer who was placed in control of the line at the time of the November breakdown, recommended an immediate expenditure of 80,0001. for fresh work as a precaution against future slips, but his reconimendation had not been favourably received at the time of my stay at Mengtse in November last.
I hear on good authority that the company intends to run on economical, not to say miserly, lines.
An illustration of this false economy came to my notice at Amichon on the 16th November. Coal was urgently required above Amichou and six truck-loads of "briquettes" attempted to pass over a dangerous piece of embank- ment, a few miles below Amichou, against the advice of the "chef de section" who, I was told, recommended a portage of 200 yards, at a cost of 201. The engine and
entrepreneur trucks of the construction train fell down the embankment and the " in charge of the subsequent portage, and salvage gang told me that the loss to the company would be about S0OL.
3
employed on this line. I never heard a complaint of ill-usage. In February 1908 I travelled on foot through the Lolo districts of the railway between Amichou and Liu feng tsun, and found the attitude of the peasantry extremely favourable towards the railway.
It has pleased some travellers to state that the Chinese are more favourably disposed to British rather than to French at Yunnan-fu. It is perhaps true that France has been unfortunate in one or two of her representatives in Yünnan, and that the colonial press has been mischievously indiscreet in shaping out an aggressive Yunnan policy. But it is probable that the truth lies in the fact that the Chinese officials are inspired by feelings of fear and deep resentment at the visible token of French power under their eyes in the shape of a French railway built by and entirely under the control of the French. If this railway had happened to have heen British I do not doubt that the travellers would have had to deplore the fact that anti-British feeling at the capital was so much stronger than the feeling against our French rivals.
The railway was formally opened to traffic on the 1st April, 1910.
FRENCH Railway Rates.
Goods
Goods of every Description.
Marmfactured Goods.
of French and Indo-Chinese
origin.
J999%
Per truck load of 5 tous with the company's liability at-
Dol. c.
Dol. C.
Dol. c.
Haiphong to Mengtse
30 40
4.5 40
36
40
Haiphong to Amichou
48 40
39 80
Hanoi to Mengtse
47 40
42 40
33 40
33
Hanoi to Amichou
45 70
36 80
Mengtse to Haiphong Tin
40
40 per ton.
In the Yunnan-fu September intelligence report reference was made to the attempt to " squeeze the Chinese merchant on exchange, in which the railway company came off second best.
The fatal accident last February on the line between Yünnan-fu and Iliang, gives another result of false economy in employing Annamite engine-drivers on this difficult stretch-probably the most dangerous bit on the railway---viz., the descent to the lake of Tang ch'ih.
The Chinese officials regard the railway with a hostility which is scarcely veiled.' They propose to attack the question of the railway hotels which have been erected at various points. The one at Amichou and probably also the one at Milati, kilometre 157 are to be closed shortly on account of Chinese official protests.
Leading Chinese officials at Yunnan-fu, e.g., Isi Liang formerly Governor- General and Kao erh ch'ien formerly Administrator of Foreign Affairs, have volunteered and even forced their opinion upon me that the line is the most expensive and the worst constructed in the world. I can say on the authority of leading French engineers employed that the railway is the most expensive within their experience. Having travelled over the line when in course of construction, I venture the opinion that it is a well-built line in spite of the extraordinary physical difficulties of the country.
It is noteworthy that the Society of Construction employed subjects of pretty The spoils have unquestionably well every European nationality except British.
gone to the Italians to be locked up in Italy. The Italian contractors, it is said, have netted from one-quarter to one-half of the capital sum expended; and I am informed on good authority that the wastage on the construction has been not less 2,000,000/, or about 25 per cent, of the total expenditure.
Chinese officials at Yunnan-fu are fond of complaining of the harsh and brutal methods of European railway employés towards Chinese workmen and the inhabitants of the district through which the railway passes. There may have been, and possibly were, isolated cases of brutality, but I do not think that the Society of Construction has deserved such an accusation, which seems to me to be deliberately false. i have at odd times and in out-of-the-way places talked with coolies formerly
NOTE.If the company's liability only extends to that part of the journey which lies through Tonquin and not to Yunnan these rates are 40 cents per ton less.
Miscellaneous goods with no stipulation as to quantity, and with full liability of the company, varying according to nature :---
Dol. c. Dol. c.
Haiphong to Mengtse
Haiphong to Amichou
Hanoi to Mengtse
Hanoi to Amichou
Surtax of 10 per cent, owing to lowness of excbange (dollar = 2 fr. 40 c.). dollar 2 fr. 60 ċ. surtax will be abolished. Ton is 1,000 kilog.
34 07 to 90 49
36 82
96 34
11
30 43
80 48
17
32 68
86 33
33
It is understood that when
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