Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-10-19
From THE Stars Travelling Commissioner.


From THE SrAR's Travelling Commissioner.
ToNaKINa, September /.
The first explorers of Tongking saw in the
Red river. which crosses it from frontier to sea,
the great highway to and from the vast and
wealthy provinces of southern China. This was
the dream for which Francis GARNER and the
rest Of the brave band of Frenchmen schemed
and fought and died Today it is known to
have been indeed the ''baseiess fabric Of
VISION" The Red river has been explored to
the Chinese frontier and found to be unsuited
to serious navigation fer the greater part of its
length, to be both shallow and full of rapids.
The future OF Tongking, therefore, if it has
one, must lie in another direction than that
which inspired its conquest. But has it
future-this 100000 square miles of varied
country, which has cost France Sc 600 men and
unknown millions of francs-wili it some day
give back these lives and this treasure hun
dredfold or Is 1t destined to drag ON in mis-
government and amid political rancours for a
few years. till evacuation closes the shameful
chapter! That depends. But for my own part
do not see how anybody vino has had oppor-
tunltes OF closely observing Tongking in DIFF
ferent parts can doubt the possibility OF
future perhaps even beyond that which GARNER
dreamed
FERTILITY OF THE COUNTRY.
To begin with, the most striking superficial
feature of Tongking is its fertility. Wherever
have seen it the land has been green with
trees and sin verdure clad" or covered with
luxuriant crops The enormous delta of the
Red river is or may be vast rice field but af-
ter the splendid crops of last year nobody
dOubts this Before many years the chief rice
supply OF the far east may come from Tong
KING. And IN countless other parts of the
country, all the travellers have told us, show
moist low-lying land equally suited for rice
cultivation. Already experiments have shown
that wheat will grow admirably on the dry
uplands. Its grain is smaller and browner and
much heavier than i'll Europe, the cost OF Gull
tlvatlon Is not more, while the selling price is
az present % per cent higher. Oleaginous
grain Is already grown in considerable guam
tlty by the natives, who extract the oil by
curious process OF their own. large conces-
sion OF land has just been taken up to be
planted with sugar cane, and there is no doubt
that many other agricultural products need
only Intelligent introduction.
PROPOSED RAILWAY
Again, consider the question of opening up
southern China Carriers hopes of the Red
river route were baseless. but what the river
has failed to do the railway may easily accom-
pllsh. An interesting scheme to effect this
Is at the present moment struggling against
the vaoillation of the authorities 1t is the
plan OF the Marquis de Mores, who has gone
over the ground himself with French engineers.
and certainly on paper it is an attractive one
His idea Is to supersede half the caravan route
between Canton and Yunnan and Thibet At
present the cost of transport is from three to
four shilllngs per ton per mile-I am quoting
the details he gave me himself-and the time
occupied, in transit is from Canton to Manning.
thirty days, and from Pakhoi to Manning eigh-
teen day. AT present from Yunnan and Thibet
comes in han for nil
goods. 1t has been well known for years
that lunnan is extremely rich in minerals.
iron, silver, lead, tin, zinc, &C., but
none OF these can afford the cost Of
caravan transport. NJ. de Mores claims that he
can reduce the four shillings to three pence and
the thirty days to fifteen hours. The railway,
o meter gauge, is planned to start from a
place called Tien-An (you will not find it on
the map, some distance on the coast north of
HalPhong and to run about 100 miles in a
northwesterly direction to a point on a river
where France has treaty rights of navigation
to bungalow, where there is French consul
and which is 100 kilometers from the present
caravan route. Such is NJ. de Mores' plan and
the French government is said to have agreed
to 1t Professionally and promised a land grant
DC. Ii it is carried out other lines will con-
meet the harbor at Tien-An with Hanoi and
then strike still further north Whether this line
Is built, however, and it is but trfling thing
OF hundred miles, the principal objection to
that railway communication with southern
China via Tongking is practicable scheme.
MINES NOW OPERATED.
Finally, as regards its minerals, the wealth of
Tongking is not open to doubt. Two years ago
the government engineer sent out on a special
mission by the French admiralty and colonial
Office to report upon the coal fields of Tongking
gave list of other mines worked by the ma
tlves. III in all, and among them 80 gold mines,
10 silver mines, 20 iron mines, z copper mines
and zinc mines. Here can begin to speak
from my own knowledge. On the concession
of the Societe Franchise des Charbonnages du
Tonkin, at place called Campha, have seen
"bowider stream" OF remarkably pure anti
mony, 5000 yards long with an average thick
ness of 20 feet, and l have stood on a solid
block OF pure oxide of antmony weighing I6
tons. In the same concession / saw a vein of
oxide of cobalt measuring 100 yards by 500 by
one yard. And from little further north I
have seen remarkable specimens of copper
ore. Infinitely more important, however
than all these, are the coal fields stretching
all along the east coast of Tongking. For
years the existence of these was well known
and many times the commanders Of
French gunboats who had been struck by the
multitude of outcrops, sent home reports CALL
ing attention to them and to the enormous adj
vantages which would accrue to France if they
could be successfully worked. At last the COM
pany have already mentioned was formed two
years ago to work a concession obtained by NJ
Bavier-Chauffour and q large number of it's
shares were taken up in Hong Kong. At this
time the venture was looked upon as risky, and
many French and foreign capitalists fought
shy Of it. The story of the concession II
had space to narrate it, would read like chap
ter of an oriental Monte Cristo" To make
an indisputable legal tender a ship was char
tered to carry 100000 silver dollars to Tong
king, where the foreign population turned out
armed to escort the bullock carts carrying the
twenty-five wooden cases through the streets
Refused there, the dollars were taken on board
again to the court Of AMMAN and the ship mar
rowly escaped destruction in a typhoon
Then they were brought back again to Hal
phong, where the French authorities finally
accepted them. Now the societe has already
1000 coolies, two engineers and dozen mas
ter miners at work.
A VAST CONCESSION.
It's concession extends over scores of square
miles, not one-tenth of which has yet even been
explored. 1t consists of three districts-Hon-
gay, Hatou and Campha, the first two being
wholly coal. l have been over the whole Of
the workings twice and into every one
of the galleries, and even taken photo
graphs of the miners at work. So can speak
with some confidence. As regards the quantity
of coal, it is practically inexhaustible. There
are millions OF tons in sight and nobody can
uua HOY Gas ha1nxv 7 have IN