Convention says—“Subject to the conditions mentioned hereafter in Articles X. and XI., the British Government, wishing to encourage and develop the land trade of China with Burmah as much as possible, consent, for a period of six years from the ratification of the present Convention, to allow Chinese produce and manufactures, with the exception of salt, to enter Burmah by land duty free, and to allow British manufactures and Burmese produce, with the exception of rice, to be exported to China by land free of duty. The duties on salt and rice imported and exported shall not be higher than those imposed on their import or export by sea.” Art. XI. says—“The exportation from Burmah into China of salt is prohibited,” and “the exportation from China into Burmah of cash, rice, pulse, and grains of every kind is prohibited;” and, again, “The importation and exportation across the frontier of opium and spirituous liquors is prohibited, excepting in small quantities for the personal use of travellers.” Art. XI. says—“Pending the negotiation of a more complete arrangement, and until the development of the trade shall justify the establishment of other frontier Customs stations, goods imported from Burmah into China, or exported from China into Burmah shall be permitted to cross the frontier by Manwyne and by Sansi. With a view to the development of trade between China and Burmah, the Chinese Government consent that for six years from the ratification of the present Convention the duties levied on goods imported into China by these routes shall be those specified in the General Tariff of the Maritime Customs, diminished by three-tenths, and that the duties on goods exported from China by the same route shall be those specified in the same tariff, diminished by four-tenths. Transit passes for imports and exports shall be granted in accordance with the rules in force at the Treaty ports.” Art. XIII. says—“It is agreed that His Majesty the Emperor of China may appoint a Consul in Burmah, to reside at Rangoon; and that Her Britannic Majesty may appoint a Consul to reside at Manwyne.” By this Convention, therefore, the same differential duties have been fixed as in the trade between Tonquin and China; but it will be observed that while Yün-nan pays for a considerable part of its imports by the Red River with native opium, it is debarred from exporting it to Burmah. What progress trade is making across the Burmah-Yün-nan frontier under these conditions I am not in a position to say, for I have seen no recent statistics bearing on the subject; but it labours under the same disadvantages in regard to its area of supply as the Red River route. The overland transit is too long, and therefore too expensive, to admit of the richest parts of Western China being “tapped” by it.

On the 1st of December, 1888, a Convention between France and China was signed at Chefoo, whereby, inter alia, the junction of the Chinese and French telegraph lines in Yün-nan and Tonquin respectively was agreed to, and Mêng-tzŭ and Lao-kai, which lies just within the Tonquin frontier, were subsequently united by wire; and on the 6th September, 1894, a similar Convention, respecting the junction of the Chinese and Burmese telegraph lines, was signed at Tien-tsin between Great Britain and China, wherein it was stipulated that the junction should be effected between the British station at Bhamo and the Chinese station at Têng-yüeh (Momein), at latest on the 31st May, 1895, unless prevented by accident or by force majeure.

By a Supplementary Convention, concluded between France and China at Peking on the 20th of June, 1895, and ratified in 1896, Man-hao, the station opened by Art. II. of the Convention of 1887, at the head of navigation of the Red River in Yün-nan, is superseded by Ho-k’ou, a place on the left bank of the same river, and just within the Chinese frontier.

Of recent years Western China has acted as a magnet, not only to exploring expeditions, but also to more practical commercial missions. In 1890 a French expedition, including Prince Henry of Orleans, passed southwards through Western Ssŭ-ch’uan and Yün-nan by way of Ta-li Fu, Mêng-tsŭ, and the Red River, from Tibet to Tonquin; and in 1895 the Prince was again at Ta-li Fu, whence he proceeded west to the Mekong, ascended the right bank of the latter to Tse-ku, and then struck westwards across the Salwen and Irrawady to Sadiya in Assam. To show the spirit of rivalry which exists, I may quote from the paper which the Prince read before the Royal Geographical Society on the 18th of May, 1896, and published in the December number of the Geographical Journal of that year. He says—“We heard [at Ssŭ-mao] that two Englishmen had just left the town. This news was not calculated to rejoice our hearts. Reconnoitring parties are numerous in Yün-nan, and there is a race between the French and English, and even amongst the French themselves. The field of the unknown is day by day being reduced with marvellous rapidity, and to find unexplored ground on the map one must hasten. At Ta-li Fu we were told that one of these Englishmen was Captain Davis, who arrived from Burmah by way of T’êng-yüeh and Ta-li, intending to return by Mien-ning, Ssŭ-mao, P’u-êrh Fu, and Tamano. We twice crossed the itinerary of these travellers, and were lucky enough only to travel along 120 miles of the same road.”

A French commercial mission (Mission Lyonnaise d’Exploration Commerciale en Chine), consisting of a dozen members, and including several experts, has recently overrun Western China from Tonquin to the borders of Tibet, part of the mission remaining at Ch’ung-k’ing for some considerable time. A Japanese Commercial Mission visited Ch’ung-k’ing in December, 1895, and returned in January, 1896, and the United States Mission, which left Tien-tsin overland for Chêng-tu to arrange a settlement, so far as American missionaries were concerned, of the anti-missionary outrages which occurred there and in other parts of the Province of Ssŭ-ch’uan in May and June, 1895, returned by way of Ch’ung-k’ing and the Yang-tsze in January, 1896. At the present moment the Blackburn Commercial Mission, headed by Mr. Bourne, of the British Consular Service in China, my successor as Consular Agent at Ch’ung-k’ing in 1884, is traversing the Western Provinces of China; and it is certain that all these missions have collected, and are collecting, information which cannot fail to be of great assistance in developing foreign trade with the West of China.

Alex. Hosie.

Newchwang,
February 18, 1897.

CONTENTS.