§ MR. SOUTTARI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, with regard to the proposals recently pressed on the Marquess of Salisbury by an influential deputation of the Chambers of Commerce for railway extension on the east and north-east of Burmah, in what direction and how near to the frontiers of south-west China it is desired to project such railway system; and, whether the concessions recently granted to the Rothschild Railway Syndicate include powers to construct these proposed lines on the frontiers of Eastern Burmah.
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONA line of railway is now in course of construction, starting from the Burmese Railway system, near Mandalay, and 1254 terminating near the western borders of China, at a point called Kunlon Ferry on the Salween River. The agreement with the new Burmah Railway Company gives powers to the Government of India to call upon the Company under specified conditions to construct such extensions of the Burmese Railway system within the frontiers of Burmah as the Government may think desirable.