§ MR. AKROYDasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If his attention has been called to the statement from competent authorities that the coal fields of China cover an area of upwards of 400,000 square miles, as contrasted with the comparatively small area of 12,000 square miles in Great Britain; if his attention has been called to the Report of Baron Von Richthofen, printed at Shanghai in 1870 and 1871, respecting certain coal-bearing provinces, notably that of Shansi, containing some 30,000 square miles, with beds varying from twelve to thirty feet in thickness, whilst the system of coal-bearing strata in this province is about five hundred feet in thickness, containing besides an inexhaustible supply of iron ore [the whole Report being amply set forth in "The Quarterly Review" for April, 1872]; and, whether Her Majesty's Government, by concerted action and in co-operation with the Powers who were parties to the Treaty of Tien-Tsin, would endeavour to negotiate a supplementary Treaty to provide for the safe investment of British and European capital in mining enterprise and in connecting lines of Railway, under proper safeguards protected by the Contracting Powers?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDBaron Richthofen's Reports on the provinces of Hunan, Hupeli, Henan, and Shansi were sent home by the Consul at Shanghai, in September, 1870. There is no reason to doubt the correctness of the Baron's estimates of the amount of coal existing in these provinces, and they are confirmed by the Reports of our own Consuls. The Consul at Hankow, in his Report for 1871, says that most of the steamers on the Yangtze take in coal at that port, the quality of which has lately much improved; it conies from Hunan, where a coal field more than 30,000 square miles in extent exists. The Consular Report from Kinhiang for 1871, speaking of the coal districts in the neighbourhood of that port, says—
The facilities for working mines remain in a rudimentary shape, although this province contains coal in enormous quantities; the coal pits of Yukang are said to be capable of producing a superior description of coal in practically inexhaustible quantities.An officer of the Consulate at Newcheang visited the coal fields in the 542 North of China in 1871, and found that coal, equal in quality to the best Cardiff, existed there in great quantities, though it is only worked on a small scale, and sold at prices varying from £1 11s. 6d. to £2 9s. 6d. a ton. With regard to the Question of obtaining from the Chinese Government permission to work mines and make railways, Sir Rutherford Alcock, during his negotiations for the revision of the Treaty in 1869, repeatedly urged these points upon them, but, unfortunately, without success. It is to be hoped that sooner or later the Chinese will realize the advantage which they would derive from the development by foreign capital of the mineral wealth of their country.