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.
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Page 685 of 704
Words from 185877 to 186192
of 191255
