§ MR. JOSEPH WALTONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Chinese Government has further conceded to France a railway line connecting the Chinese Treaty port of Pak-hoi, in the province of Kwangtung, with the valley of the West River at Nanning-fu, thus completing the system of trade routes from Tong-king and the neighbouring regions into Southern China framed by the French Government; if so, whether Her Majesty's Government will insist upon the opening of the West River and its tributaries to their navigable limits, also the making of Nanning a Treaty port in order to safeguard British trade interests in Southern China; whether Her Majesty's Government have secured railway concessions enabling the laying down of a railway to connect British Burma with the Upper Yang-tsze; and whether the correspondence with the Chinese and French Governments in regard to British interests in Southern China will be presented to the House?
MR. CURZONI understand that a concession for a railway from Pak-hoi to Nanning has been granted to the French. I cannot make any statement at present as to the measures which are in course of adoption in Southern China by Her Majesty's Government. The railway to the Burmese frontier is being pushed on, but the question of the direction which its extension should take on reaching the Chinese border is a very difficult one, and until this has been decided it is clearly impossible to apply for any concession from the Chinese Government. There has been no correspondence with the French Government on the subject. The correspondence with the Chinese Government is still proceeding, and cannot be given at present.