Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/331

Rh followed through up to Tali Fu and so on to Yün-nan Fu, is the only through line into China from Burma that can ever be constructed."

Here we have a fair representation of prevalent opinion upon the question of a railway route from Burma into Yün-nan. Summed up, it amounts to this. The possibility of a railway ever being constructed along the Bhamo-Tali Fu route was ridiculed by a Consular officer thirty years ago. The conclusions then arrived at were accepted as valid by engineers examining the country with a special view to discovering possible railway routes in the years 1898-1900, and a line from the Kung-long Ferry on the Burmese frontier viê the Nam Ting river to Tali Fu and Yün-nan Fu was declared by them to be "the only through line into China from Burma that can ever be constructed." The importance, therefore, of the conclusions arrived at by Mr Lilley is considerable, since they invalidate all the premisses upon which the question of railway