1864.] The Question of British Trade with Western China. 407 



Memorandum on the Question of British Trade with Western China 

 via Burmah. — By Br. C. Williams. 



[Received 2Uh June, 1864.] [Read 7th September, 1864.] 



The subject appears to naturally divide itself into the consideration 

 of several sets of circumstances that may be conveniently classified 

 under the following heads : 



1st. The political state of the several countries between the Bay 

 of Bengal and Central China ; 



2nd. The Physical Geography of the district proposed to be tra- 

 versed by the various lines of communication ; 



3rd. Their commercial condition and capabilities including popu- 

 lation, products, former and existing trade, &c. ; 



4th. The conclusion from consideration of the above three sub- 

 jects, as to which is the most desirable and practicable route. 

 I. — Political. 



Pegu, Martaban and Tenasserim, with their rivers and ports^ 

 being permanent portions of British territory, and all therefore but 

 insuperable physical obstacles, being under the direct control of the 

 British authorities, it is needless to consider their political condition. 



The state of the political relations of Burmah Proper with the 

 British Government of India, up to the end of 1862, has, I believe, 

 had much to do with the direction which public attention has taken 

 in looking for the desired opening of Western China. 



Up to that time, the Burmese Government, unwilling to acknow- 

 ledge in any way the stubborn fact of the province of Pegu being 

 British territory, had obstinately rejected the repeated overtures of 

 the Indian Government to the settlement of a permanent peace, and 

 had in fact behaved towards that Government in a spirit of passive 

 hostility. 



At the time of first turning my thoughts to a career in Burmah, 

 and especially in Upper Burmah, one of the prospects most distinctly 

 in my view, was that of the old route to China by the Irrawaddy 

 being re-opened and made available to British commerce, by an alte- 

 ration of the then existing feelings and intentions of the Burman 

 Government towards the British. This is not the place to enter into 

 a history of the changes gradually produced in the minds of the chief 

 authorities of Burmah Proper. Suffice it to note that the political 



