It is curious to see what totally different statements have been made about this railway, and one wonders how those who have written much that has now turned out to be unfounded about it, can reconcile their writings with their consciences. At the end of 1895 Mr. A. R. Colquhoun stated to the Daily Giaphic as follows:—"* Our duty is to endeavour, without loss of time, to reach Yunnan bya railway which should be carried vid Sinm to Ssumao, the only natural approach available to us." And again "Moreover, the Kunlon Ferry is an im and the traveller who reaches that station will find impracticable mountain ranges between him and the plateau of South-West China." Mr. Holt S. Hallett, has, of course, a lot to say against me, which has been undertaken in spite of all his reports and protests and the cession of Kokang to, England, to serve as a route for the extension of it, has now put the last nail in the coffin of his Burma-Siam-China scheme. In the report to the Leeds Chamber of Commerce in 1896 Mr. Holt Hallett says "Even, suming, which is past belief to any one who has studied the subject, that the nion-Ferry Railway was continued to Talifu " what trade can be ex-ceted, etc." Also we have seen that the idea that the Kunlon-Ferry Railway can be carried to Tulifu is not founded on an examination of the country; that from the character of such of neighbouring regions as have been explored,.such an extension of the railway is utterly unlikely to be physically practicable, etc."
Farther, in his book A Thousand Miles on an Elephant published in 1890, Mr. Holt Hallett did not hesitate to remark of the Kinlon-Ferry route that it was purely local and could never be anything else.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.