Directory_and_Chronicle_1927 — Page 973

LUNGCHOW-MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

DIRECTORY

LOCAL GOVENRMENT

General Lu Huan Yen, in charge

關州龍 Lung-chow-kuan

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME

Acting Commissioner-R. T. Nelson

Tidewaiter-W. W. Brazier

Clerk-Fung Chun Chiu

EMANUEL MISSION

Miss E. Lucas

Miss Loudwell

FRENCH CONSULATE

Consul-M. Cadet

FRENCH HOSPITAL

Dr. Ting Kwok

局郵等二州龍

POST OFFICE (Chinese)

895,

Officer-in-charge-Ch'en Hang-k’ang

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION

Father A. Barrière

2

2 5*

Je

en

MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

自蒙 Mêng-sz

This is a district city in south-east Yunnan, and together with Man-hao, a village- on the left bank of the Red River, was opened to trade by the Additional Convention to the French Treaty of Tientsin of the 25th April, 1886, signed at Peking on the 26th June, 1887. The town is two days' journey from Man-hao and about six days' from the frontier of Tonkin at Laokay, and beautifully situated, being built on a cultivated plateau 20 miles long by about 12 miles in breadth, encircled by picturesque mountains, and is 4,280 feet above the level of the sea. It has a population of about 11,000 persons, but was a place of much more importance before the Mahommedan rebellion, as the numerous well-built temples, many of them now in ruins, still testify. It is, however, a considerable commercial emporium even now, and is becoming an important centre for the distribution of foreign goods imported via Tonkin. The French Consul hoisted his flag at Mêngtsz on the 30th April, 1889, and the Customs station was opened in the following August. The net value of the trade of the port for 1925- was Hk. Tls. 30,878,903, as compared with Hk. Tls. 25,384,788 for 1924, Hk. Tls. 23,313,759 for 1923, Hk. Tls. 22,222,855 for 1922, and Hk. Tls. 18,321,246 for 1921. The Chinese merchants avail themselves largely of the advantages offered by the transit pass system. The value of the trade of the Yunnanfu, Pishihchai, Hokow, Mapai and Manhao branch offices is included in the Mengtsz Custom returns. The province depends for its. purchasing power on tin. In his report for 1920, the Commissioner of Customs said:- "With a Government which will grant a respite from the war with neighbouring provinces, which will re-establish order and guarantee some security for life and property throughout the country, and will enforce strict legislation against the destruction of the forests, there is little doubt that Yunnan, with its mineral treasures and mountains so well adapted for the growing of timber, might easily become a pros- perous and wealthy country and that it would supply the rest of China with timber and metal in sufficient quantities to make the Republic independent as regards these commodities.

Unless severe laws against the destruction of the forests are promptly enforced, in a very few years, the last of her forests having disappeared and taken away with them the remaining chances of an impoverished land to recover itself, South Yunnan will resemble the arid desert of North China, swept by droughts; floods, and famine and an eyesore and a drain on the resources of the rest of the country. The climate of Mêngtsz is temperate and salubrious. Plague has been absent from

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