FRANCE. 



251 



wire. Cambodia has an area of 40,530 square 

 miles, with a population estimated at 1,500,000, 

 including 250,000 Chinese and Annamites and 40,- 

 000 Malays. Pnom-Penh, the capital, has 50,000 

 inhabitants. King Norodom is the nominal ruler, 

 but French administrators carry on the Govern- 

 ment. The allowance for the King and princes is 

 $520,510. Rice, betel, tobacco, indigo, the sugar- 

 tree, the silk-tree, pepper, corn, coffee, and cinna- 

 mon are some of the products, and cotton is ex- 

 ported, as well as salt fish, tobacco, and rice. 



Annam is administered by native officials un- 

 der French superiors. Thanh-Thai was made King 

 by the French in 1889. The area is 88,780 square 

 miles, and the population is estimated at 6,000,- 

 000, consisting of Annamites in the populous low- 

 lands and Mois in the hills. There are 420,000 

 Christians. The country produces rice, corn, and 

 other grains, areca-nuts, silk, cinnamon, tobacco, 

 sugar, betel, manioc, bamboo, timber, caoutchouc, 

 dyes, and medicinal plants. Iron, copper, gold, 

 and zinc are mined and worked by the natives, 

 who also make crape-cloth and pottery. Sugar 

 and cinnamon are the largest exports. Coal is 

 mined at Tourane, and a railroad is to be built 

 to that point from Hue, the capital. 



Tonquin has an area of 119,600 square miles 

 and a population estimated at 12,000,000. There 

 are 400,000 Christians. Hanoi, the capital, has 

 50,000 inhabitants. The chief product is rice, 

 which is exported to Hong-Kong and thence to 

 China. Sugar, cotton, silk, pepper, oils, fruit, and 

 tobacco are produced also, and coffee has been 

 extensively planted. The value of the imports in 

 1899 was 45,016,918 francs, of which 24,951,948 

 francs came from France and French colonies, and 

 the exports were valued at 19,335,971 francs, of 

 which 1,234,648 francs were taken by France and 

 French colonies. The transit trade to Yunnan is 

 about 5,000,000 francs a year, and the products 

 brought down from there are valued at 3,200,000 

 francs. There are 64 miles of railroad., and con- 

 tracts have been made for five other lines. Cop- 

 per and iron are mined, and 244,800 tons of coal 

 were taken from the mines at Hongay and Kebao 

 in 1898. 



The Laos territory has an area of about 91,000 

 square miles and 1,500,000 inhabitants. The capi- 

 tal is Luang-Prabang, which has 40,000 inhabit- 

 ants. Rice, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and fruits are 

 raised. There are teak forests, and gold, tin, 

 lead, and precious stones exist, and French com- 

 panies have been formed to work the mines. Ow- 

 ing to difficulties of transport the trade is small. 

 Steamboats have been placed on the upper Me- 

 kong above the rapids. 



Amoy and the Russian port of Vladivostok will 

 be connected by a cable, enabling messages to be 

 exchanged with France independently of English 

 and German lines. The French Cable Company 

 has undertaken to lay cables connecting the 

 French colonies with each other and with France 

 by purely French lines. The French Chambers 

 passed with little discussion a bill sanctioning the 

 arrangements made by M. Doumier with a French 

 syndicate for the construction of the railroad into 

 the Chinese province of Yunnan, first projected 

 in 1889. A concession was obtained from the 

 Chinese Government in the spring of 1898, and in 

 the same year the Chambers approved the proj- 

 ect. Gov.-Gen. Doumier went to France in 1901 

 for the purpose of organizing a company to 

 undertake the construction of the railroad in 

 Chinese territory. The Indo-China Government 

 had already built a good part of the section from 

 Haifong to Vietri, and was building the continua- 

 tion to Laokai, the total distance between Hai- 



fong and the frontier being 2.",7 miU The length 

 of the Chinese section from ],aok;ii to Ynnnan- 

 Sen is 285 miles. The company, which has an 

 authorized capital of 101,000,000 t'nin< --, ->.~>.000 - 

 000 francs of share capital and 7<i,00<).')00 francs 

 of bonds, will have the operation of the whole 

 line, taking over the section to Vietri on April 

 1, 1903, and the section between that point and 

 Laokai two years later. Half the stock is taken 

 by the Government of Indo-China, and a guar- 

 antee is given of 3 per cent, interest for seventy- 

 five years on the bonds, which the colony under- 

 takes to redeem should the company fail. The 

 company will divide the profits with the Govern- 

 ment. The exports of Yunnan are at present tin 

 and opium, and the principal article of import is 

 cotton yarn of Indian manufacture. The unde- 

 veloped mineral resources of this part of China 

 are believed to be great. Yunnan has copper and 

 excellent coal as well as tin. An extension of the 

 line into the Yangtse basin will tap the richest 

 part of China and divert the trade of Szechuan 

 to Haifong, but the rough mountainous country 

 that the route crosses presents engineering diffi- 

 culties that will make construction costly. In 

 Yunnan France can not pretend to exclusive com- 

 mercial or political privileges, having agreed with 

 England on Jan. 15, 1896, that all advantages con- 

 ceded in that province to either power shall be 

 shared by both. The railroad connecting Phulang- 

 Thuong with Langson has been extended to 

 Hanoi across the northeast part of the Tonquin 

 delta in a direction parallel to the seacoast, while 

 the main line that will penetrate Yunnan crosses 

 the delta in a southeasterly direction from Hai- 

 fong. A line will connect Hanoi with Vietri. The 

 line from Hanoi to Haifong crosses the delta and 

 conveys the products of the interior of Tonquin to 

 the coast. A railroad is to be built across the 

 delta from Hanoi to Vinh in Annam, and eventu- 

 ally extended to Hue and Saigon, connecting the 

 three colonies of Indo-China with each other. 

 Hanoi, with four railroad lines, is growing rapidly. 

 Insurrectionary disturbances on the frontiers 

 passed off without untoward consequences, but in 

 1901 several incursions of Chinese pirates oc- 

 curred, and in an attack on the post of Lungling 

 the Chinese killed 5 Tonquin sharpshooters before 

 they were driven back over the frontier. The 

 Indo-Chinese army contributed 6 battalions to 

 the international forces in China. A revolt of the 

 southern Khas tribes of Laos had to be dealt with 

 in the autumn. The 'insurgents repulsed the 

 militia and, holding the Mekong river, intercepted 

 communications between Laos and Cochin-China. 

 New Caledonia is the most important of the 

 French possessions in the Pacific. The Governor 

 is P. Feillet. There is an elective Council-General. 

 The area of the island and its dependencies is 

 7,700 square miles, with a population in 1898 of 

 52,756, comprising 19,053 Europeans, 31,874 na- 

 tives, and 1,829 Asiatics. Of the Europeans 1,762 

 were officials, 1,714 soldiers, 5,585 colonists, 2,515 

 liberated convicts, and 7,477 convicts in the penal 

 establishment. Noumea, the capital, had 4,010 

 free inhabitants. The local revenue in 1900 was 

 3,407,876 francs. The expenditure of France in 

 1901 was 6,341,838 francs. Coffee, corn, tobacco, 

 sugar, wine, manioc, and pineapples are produced. 

 The minerals produced in 1898 were 53,200 tons of 

 nickel ore, valued at 2,394,000 francs; 21,000 tons 

 of cobalt ore, valued at 2,100,000 francs; and 14,- 

 300 tons of chrome iron, valued at 715,000 francs. 

 The imports in 1899 were 10,958,198 francs in 

 value, of which 6,275,796 francs came from France, 

 and 369,403 francs from French colonies. The 

 exports were valued at 8,913,197 francs, of which 



