The Line From Canton Westward
Passes Via Yunnanfoo To Manwein, On The Borders Of Burmah.
Shanghai is in
communication with Foochow and Moy, Kashing, Shaoshing, Ningpo and other
places.
Lines have been constructed between Foochow and Canton and between
Taku, Port Arthur and Seoul in Corea, and the line along the Yangtse
Valley has been extended to Chungking. By an arrangement made with the
Russian telegraph authorities, the Chinese and Siberian lines in the Amour
Valley were joined in the latter part of 1892, and there is now overland
communication between Pekin and Europe through Russian territory. The
postal service of China is unquestionably primitive from a Western point
of view. It is carried on by means of post carts and runners. There are,
besides, numerous private postal couriers, and, during the winter, when
the approach to the capital is closed by sea and river, a service between
the office of Foreign Customs at Pekin and the outports is maintained. The
Chinese, it seems, have always been great believers in their own postal
system. Even those who have emigrated to British colonies have adhered to
their own method of transporting letters, refusing to use the duly
constituted government posts, except under compulsion. Both Hongkong and
the Straits Settlements have been actually compelled to legislate in the
matter. It is said, however, to be remarkable how safe the native post is,
not merely for the carriage of ordinary letters, but for the conveyance of
money. We should add that, on February 2, 1897, the Imperial Chinese Post
Office was opened under the management of Sir Robert Hart, and China has
since joined the Postal Union.
In a chapter of Mr. Colquhoun's book bearing the caption "England's
Objective in China," we are told that there are two ways of attacking the
trade of China in the Middle Kingdom, so far as England is concerned. The
one is from the seaboard, entering China by the chief navigable rivers,
notably the Yangtse, which is the main artery of China, and the West
River, which passes through the southern provinces. The other mode of
approach is from England's land base, Burmah, through Yunnan. It is
acknowledged that the sea approach, hitherto the only one, is, from the
purely trading point of view, incomparably the more important; but the
other, or complementary land route, is pronounced a necessity if England's
commercial and political influence is to be maintained and extended. The
isolation of China over sea has long since been annuled by steam, and her
former complete isolation by land has now ceased also. Hitherto cut off
from access by land, she will, in the north, be shortly placed in direct
railway communication with Europe, a fact which by itself renders
imperative a corresponding advance from the south. It is many years since
Mr. Colquhoun began to advocate the railway communication of Burmah with
southwestern China, first with the view to open Yunnan and Szchuen, and,
secondly, to effect a junction between those two great waterways, the
Yangtse and the Irrawaddy. It seemed to him that the connection of the
navigation limit of the Yangtse with the most easterly province of Anglo-
India was a matter of cardinal importance, not merely because it was
eminently desirable for commercial purposes to connect the central and
lower regions of the Yangtse with Burmah, but also for political reasons.
It so happens that the navigation limit of that river lies within the
province of Szchuen, which, in Mr. Colquhoun's opinion, should be the
commercial and political objective of England. Szchuen, from its size,
population, trade and products, may, according to Mrs. Bishop, be truly
called the Empire Province. Apart from its great mineral resources, the
province produces silk, wax and tobacco, all of good quality; grass cloth,
grain in abundance, and tea, plentiful though of poor flavor. The climate
is changeable, necessitating a variety of clothing. Cotton is grown in
Szchuen, but Bourne states that Indian yarn is driving it out of
cultivation, not apparently on account of the enormous saving through
spinning by machinery, but because the fiber can be grown more cheaply in
India. The greater part of the surplus wealth of Szchuen is devoted to the
purchase of raw native and foreign cotton and woolen goods. All the cotton
bought is not consumed in the province, for the inhabitants manufacture
from the imported raw material and export the product to Yunnan and
western Kweichow. Rich as it is, Szchuen has the disadvantage of being
difficult of access from the rest of the world, for at present merchandise
can now only reach it during certain months of the year, and after a
difficult voyage. Its trade would be increased very greatly were the
navigation of the Yangtse rendered easier and safer, thus facilitating the
establishment of effective steam communication not only to Chungking, but
as far as Suifoo.
The natural channel of trade between Hongkong and southwestern China is
the Sikiang, or West River. Owing, however, to the obstacles raised by
taxation and the non-enforcement by England of the transit-pass system,
trade has been diverted to other channels, such as the Pakhoi-Nanning
route, and later to the Tonquin route, the French having insisted on the
effective carrying out of the transit-pass system via Mengtse. At present
British goods are actually sent from Hongkong through French territory via
Mengtse to a point within seven days of Bhamo in Burmah. The Lungchow
route, whatever its merits might have been, had the railway line from
Pakhoi to Nanning not been secured by the French government, is now,
according to Mr. Colquhoun, of quite secondary importance. He concedes
that, unless the West River is at once effectively opened throughout its
course, the Pakhoi-Nanning-Yunnan route is bound to command the largest
share of the trade of south and southwestern China.
Having passed under review the provinces of south and southwestern China
and the great waterways - to wit, the Yangtse and West rivers - we may now
inquire what measures should be adopted to improve the present state of
affairs in the interest of China and of foreign trade.
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