A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States

by Holt S. Hallett

Within Bangkok the surface of the ground was covered to the depths of half and three-quarters of a fathom; and noblemen, great and small, whose duties required them to visit the king, paddled their boats to the doors of the inner palace buildings. Between Bangkok and Ayuthia, as the flood rose above the floors, which are raised several feet from the ground, the people elevated a temporary floor, and made egress and ingress through the windows. Some were obliged to erect the floor upon the roof-beams of their houses, and to enter and leave by the gable-ends. The great plains looked like a sea; and one night during a storm the drifting masses of floating plants, gathering against some houses, swept them away, many of the sleeping occupants perishing.

Boats from Raheng to Bangkok take from 6 to 8 days in the rains, and from 12 to 15 days in the dry season. Returning from Bangkok, boats take 20 days in the rains, and from 30 to 35 days in the dry season. They are longer proceeding up-stream in the dry season than in the rains, owing to the shallowness of the stream, and the numerous sandbanks in its bed.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

GROWTH OF FOREIGN COMPETITION FOR TRADE—NEED FOR NEW MARKETS—INDIA AND CHINA AS MARKETS—NECESSITY FOR CHEAP COMMUNICATIONS—ACTION TAKEN BY MR COLQUHOUN AND MYSELF—PROBABLE EFFECTS OF THE INDO-SIAM-CHINA RAILWAY—INDO-BURMESE CONNECTION IN COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION—REASONS FOR CHOOSING MAULMAIN AS TERMINUS FOR CONNECTION WITH CHINA—SIAMESE SECTION NOW UNDER SURVEY—EFFECTS OF CONNECTING MAULMAIN WITH SIAMESE RAILWAY—COST OF CONNECTION—PROSPECTIVE ADVANTAGES—CARAVAN-ROUTES FROM MAULMAIN TO RAHENG—ESTIMATE FOR BRANCH TO OUR FRONTIER—APPROXIMATE ESTIMATE FOR CONTINUING THE BRANCH TO RAHENG—COMPARISON BETWEEN PROPOSED BRITISH AND RUSSIAN RAILWAYS—BRITISH INTERESTS IN SIAM—MR SATOW’S LETTER—SIR ARTHUR PHAYRE’S OPINION ON OUR DUTY TO PROTECT SIAM—CONNECTION OF BURMAH AND SIAM BY RAILWAY THE BEST FORM OF SUPPORT—CANNOT ALLOW SIAM TO BE ABSORBED BY FRANCE—EFFECT OF SUCH ABSORPTION UPON BURMAH—OPINIONS OF SIR CHARLES BERNARD—CANNOT AFFORD TO HAND OVER OUR MARKETS TO FRANCE—OPINION OF SIR HENRY YULE—PAYING PROSPECTS OF THE BRANCH TO THE FRONTIER—SIR RICHARD TEMPLE’S OPINION—THE MOST PROMISING OF ALL FUTURE RAILWAY LINES—EFFECT OF PROPOSED LINES—SIR CHARLES BERNARD’S PROJECT—COMPARISON BETWEEN MAULMAIN AND BHAMO ROUTES—TAKAW ROUTE—KUN LÔN FERRY ROUTES—THE MAULMAIN ROUTE OR NOTHING—IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION.

In these days of commercial rivalry, when foreign nations are competing with us in every neutral market in the world, when Europe and North America are being closed against our goods by prohibitive tariffs, and the Royal Commission appointed on the late depression of trade has placed on record its opinion that over-production has been one of the prominent features in the course of trade of recent years, and has urged us to display greater activity in searching for and developing new markets, we cannot afford to neglect any advantage we possess for the extension of our trade.

The seaboard and navigable rivers of the world give access to only limited areas for commerce. To open up new markets, we must penetrate the great and populous but landlocked interiors of the unopened continents of Asia and Africa, and our vast colonial possessions, with railways thus providing cheap means of communication in the extensive areas that are now shut off from our commerce by the prohibitive cost of carriage.

India and China, the largest and most densely populated markets yet undeveloped, contain together 700,000,000 inhabitants—one-half the population of the earth. These consist of civilised people, with their commerce uncramped at their ports by prohibitive tariffs, who would gladly become our customers if by cheapening the cost of carriage we could place our machine-made goods at their doors at a less price than they can acquire local hand-made manufactures.

Since 1881 my friend Mr Colquhoun and I have been striving our utmost to interest the public in the great and yet undeveloped markets of the East. We have tried to impress upon Government and the mercantile and manufacturing community, that Great Britain is in possession of certain advantages which render her the envy of competing nations. She is in possession of India and Burmah, and is thus the next-door neighbour to the landlocked half of the great and populous empire of China.

We have endeavoured to awaken, and have awakened, an intelligent interest in the subject of the importance of connecting India with China by a railway; and by exploration have proved to the satisfaction of every one who has studied the question, that a practical route between these two great empires exists, and that along that route a railway can be constructed at a reasonable cost, which would tend greatly to enhance the commerce of Great Britain and India with its Eastern neighbours—Siam and its Shan States, and the western half of China.

When this railway is constructed, its inland terminus at Ssumao will assuredly form the nucleus of a system of Chinese railways which will spread through the western, central, and southern provinces of China. One of these lines would be made to join our terminus at Ssumao with Pakhoi, the southern treaty-port in the China Sea, and thus complete a through line from the Persian Gulf to the China Sea by a railway extending solely through British, Siamese, and Chinese territories. This line would pass through and develop the richest part of Asia, foil the designs of the French, who are hoping and endeavouring to oust our trade from Southern China and Central Indo-China, and give us vast markets for the future expansion of British and British-Indian commerce.