A GREAT UNDERTAKING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 13

A GREAT UNDERTAKING.

„—- — *a^ ■ *——— THE BURMA RAILWAY. ' TRENCH ENTERPRISE. 'When the building of tha Burma railway extension that was to penetrate Yunnan wa« stopped, the French in Indo-Chinu woke up and pushed on the work on their Red River VaJlcy lino with intense energy. To-day, cays the Calcutta Englishman, it looks as though they wcra about to reap an exceeding great reward. This reward, it mnst hs owned, has baon thoroughly well earned. Enormous difEcnltios were encountered in tho construction of the lint, the cost in money and Jife was great, often the tasl' looked hopeless, and many, both French and British, declared ifc would nsver be accomplished, or, if accomplished, -would never pay. Determination and constantly renewed energy wen through as they always must, and the predictions of <he doubting Thomasss aro being dispiowd. The lins has made j slow progress, but the progress ha 3 not | beon unduly slow- when the difficulties overcome nre tjkua imo consideration. The greatosr have rJceady bten conquered, and it is ruiiiidently anticipated that the lino will >>'< opi-ned for through traflic by tho middle of 1909. It wiiJ, when (omplcle, link Hanoi and Haipong ■\sith Yunnan-fu. Ifc is possible now to ;io to Mongtse from the llr.noi end up j the Red River Vnlfey, pnd the engineers j working from tho Oltinetc end are- also ' making good progress. j Tlie French ixprcs3 thy most, canguino • belief that not only will ll --l new lini bo able to capture the trnA<i thui now iinds the sen. througli Bui'ma. but aLso vh* foreign transit trado that now is worked at enormous expense «p and ' clown tho Yangtso 1-olw^n Shanghai and (be upper provincial towns. There i; nu'ioason, provided thd new lina be well c-quipped, and t^*> this the French vill sec, why tho Esd River route and tho French . Indo-Chinese port should not reduce the trade of Canton and •Shanghai and also of Hongkong and Rangoon, so far as Western China is concerned. The province* that will be^ tapod are rich, and will become richer in no long time. It has always been difficult to understand why "the British Yunnan line was stopped. A& surveyed it would have had to traverse a very difficult region, and would have bsen costly to build. But the difficulties and tho cost to bs faced would( have been no greater than those that the French had to consider. And the reward isi trad-a and in political iniluence would, as the French ars demonstrating, have been enormous. But it io not too late (adds the Calcutta Englishman) to rotiieve th 3 error, one of the few that Lord Curzon mads.