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16 miles from its mouth. The port is accessible for steamers drawing up to 18 feet. Regular services of French coasting steamers are maintained with Saigon, where connection is made with the Messageries Maritimes steamers for Europe; and with Hong Kong, which port supplies a large proportion of the imports into the colony.
The conditions of trade are very similar to those prevailing in Saigon. The only British house established at the port is the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, which is steadily strengthening its position. British commercial interests are represented by French firms, and the following houses conduct this business:-
Messrs. Denis Frères.-M. Giquesux, a partner of the house, holds the office of H.M. Vice-Consul, while the firm acts as the agents for the China Naviga- tion Co., Ltd. (Messrs. Butterfield and Swire), the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and many British insurance offices.
Compagnie de Commerce et de Navigation d'Extrême-Orient. The agencies of the Blue Funnel Line (Alfred Holt & Co.) and the Indo-China S.N. Co. (Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd.) are in the hands of this firm, which also acts for several London fire and marine insurance companies.
A. R. Marty operates a line of steamers to Hong Kong under the French flag, and also represents the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha.
The last few years have witnessed an important development of industrial activity in the province of Tongking. The important Hongay coal mines, situated on the coast, produce anthracite coal of excellent quality, which is finding a steadily increasing market in South China. l'ortland cement is manufactured at Haiphong, and is competing in the markets of the Far East with that produced by the British company at Hong Kong. Perhaps the most important industrial enterprise in the whole of Frenchi Indo-China is the Société Cotonnière du Tonkin, which operates three cotton-spinning mills in the province, one at Haiphong of 25,000 spindles, one at Nam-Dinh of 24,000, and one at Hanoi of 10,000. The yarn spun at these factories is not only finding a ready sale throughout Indo-China, but is being exported in steadily increasing quantities to the neighbouring Chinese province of Yunnan to the detriment of Bombay and Japanese spinnings. Between the years 1908 and 1914, the imports of Tongkingese yarn into Yünnan zid Mengtsz increased from 6,423 piculs to 36,072 piculs.
Transit Trade. Since the completion in 1910 of the through line of railway between Haiphong and Yunnan Fu, the capital of the Chinese province of Yünnan, the importance of Haiphong as the port of entry for S.W. China has increased enormously. In this respect Haiphong may be said to be a commercial dependency of Hong Kong, in which market the foreign trade of S.W. China is largely centred. Regular services operated by
The China Navigation Co., Ltd., and the Indo-China S.N. Co., Ltd., under the British flag, by A. R. Marty under the French flag, and by Japanese steamers, ply between the two ports.
Goods passing in transit through Tongking are charged 20 per cent of the general French Import Tariff as transit dues, but in addition have to submit to an infinity of charges levied by the local authorities at Haiphong, which involve endless trouble and serious delay. The exactions and indifference of the French Customs officials to a large extent neutralise the benefits of a most important railway line, which has been of very great expense to the colony, but which, in fact, has done little to increase French commercial activity in Yünnan, German commercial interests in Yunan Fu before the war were predominant, and the recent successful British endeavours to secure this trade have been regarded with undisguised jealousy and hostility on the part of French officials and merchants.
very
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS.
1. The foreign trade of the French Colony of Indo-China is centred in the two parts of Saigon and Haiphong, and has increased from a total of 5,000,0001, in 1880 to 26,000,000l. in 1913. The trade consists, on the export side, of very heavy shipments of rice, and, ou the import side, of manufactured goods, mainly cotton fabrics and yarns, gunny bags, silk tissues, and hardware. The share of France
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and her colonies amounted in 1913 to 30 4 per cent. of the total trade, to 21 per cent. of the exports. and to 36 75 per cent. of the imports.
2. The share taken by the United Kingdom in the trade of the colony is very small, but the British ports of Singapore and Hong Kong do a most important transit trade with Indo-China, and large shipments of gunny bags are made from Calcutta to meet the requirements of the rice exporters.
3. Although the colony offers a promising market for manufactured goods, British manufacturers are effectually excluded by the high tariff in force, with the result that 95 per cent. of the cotton fabrics and 66 per cent. of the machinery imported is drawn from France and the French colonies.
4. Prior to the war there were no British general merchants established in the country, nor have I heard of any expansion of British interests within the past two years, beyond visits from the travellers of certain Straits firms and a few sales of piece goods from stock. The Chartered and Hong Kong Banks transact financial business and exchange, both at Saigon and Haiphong, but their clients are almost entirely French firms. The apparent reason for this state of affairs is that British houses prefer the free, cosmopolitan conditions prevailing in the other markets of the East to the cramped and confined existence in the French colonies, where the French language, customs, and mode of life prevail, and where foreigners are not regarded with favour,
5. Despite these conditions, one or two German merchants, with headquarters in Paris, have been able to conduct a profitable business. These houses are now closed, and it is doubtful whether German firms will be allowed to open in the colony at least for several years after the conclusion of hostilities. therefore, appear to be an opening for one or more British houses, preferably those There would, established in the Straits Settlements, to take up the trade formerly handled by the Germans, in addition to which there is little doubt that the large British shipping and insurance companies would probably give their support in the way of agencies. I have reason to know that the local agents of the British banks would welcome such enterprise.
6. On the whole, the prospects for any very material expansion of British trade in Indo-China are not promising. The French Government apparently regards its Oriental colonies solely as political " points d'appui ' " and as outlets for the manu- factures of the Mother Country. From this somewhat selfish point of view, French colonisation may be said to have met with a certain measure of success, but there is no doubt whatever that the development of the countries themselves has been restricted and retarded by this ultra-protectionist policy. One has only to compare commercial conditions at Saigon and Haiphong with those prevailing in the free open ports of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, or even Bangkok, to realise how French bureaucratic methods and Customs duties have stunted and restricted the natural development of the country. This protectionist régime is, to some extent, reacting upon French industry. For instance, under the protective tariff, French textile fabrics have practically supplanted British and other goods in the Indo- Chinese market, but this has been at the expense of the native consumer, and has had the natural result of stimulating the establishment of textile manufactures in the country itself. But for the tariff wall with which Indo-China has been surrounded, there is little doubt that Saigon could have been made a great open port, rivalling to some extent Hong Kong and Singapore.
The future, so far as British trade is concerned, depends entirely upon whether the French Government is prepared, after the war, materially to reduce in our favour, whether as a result of bargaining or otherwise, its highly-protective tariff,
SECTION 6.-Hong Kong.
The present conditions in Hong Kong have many points of resemblance to those prevailing in the sister Crown colony of the Straits Settlements. Hong Kong, even more than Singapore, is an entrepôt pure and simple, and caters for the trade of South China, and to some extent for that of the Philippines and French Indo-China. The conditions in Hong Kong and South China have already been described in some detail in my previous report on China. I therefore propose to confine myself in this section
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