A movement is on foot to develop the frontier and the whole province wf Sikang. Young Chinese, trained abroad, are taking a keen interest in this scheme, one part of which all sincerely hope will go through, namely, the improvement of Tibetan cattle, Mr. Fan I-hua, from Hopeh and a student from Texas, hias been trained as veterinary surgeon and knows his business, He is Jeaving for the interior and' intends to set up a cattle ranch with 1,500 head of cattle. If he can improve' the breed of yak he will put the Tibetans under an eternal obligation to him.
The nomads seem quite ignorant of methods of breeding or improving breeds, consequently the yak has always remained a_yak, and in some parts of Sikang the animal thas deteriorated considerably, Mr. Fan now hopes to, remedy this and improve, if possible, the cattle all over Sikang. We have often been surprised at the very poor' supply of milk given by the Tibetan cows. In Minya, west of Tachienlu, many cows only give a quart or two per day, With rich pasture lands this seems quite miserable and naturally mille is an expensive article of food. In a country like Tibet, with its thousands, if not millions of cattle, mill ought to be an inexpensive and plentiful article of food. Such is, however, not the ease, While travelling in Minya, a cattle country, we have been asked one rupee for quart' of milk, and along the frontier we Pay 35 cents, (Mexican) for a quart of highly-watered cows' mulk, In the Land of the Yak such a state of things should not exist. The expert with his southern Texas training should be able to improve this and give us in the course of time, a land, if not flowing in honey, at east a country rich in good milk. We have yet to see what the nomadic reaction to his Scheme will be, He may meet with problems; he will certainly meet with dificulties. The nomad is highly superstitious and has lived all his life on the principle that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, He has never heard of cattle breeding and improving live stock; to him the yak is a yak, and who ever heard of improving a yak? and why improve the yak? Exactly! As the woolly nomad may see it, an improved yak may give more milk, and more milk may give more butter and more cheese, and more butter: will produce more money, and more snoney will mean more trouble a more trouble will demand more religion so why improve the yak when its improvement will only result in embarrassment, Again he may argue: Can man improve the yak? In the Land of the Lamas every~ thing very largely depends on Lamaism. It is the lama's business to improve the nomad, and the nomad therefore concludes it is the lama's business to improve the yak, and this can only be done by praying for it and blowing long ten-foot trumpets. To improve it in any other way, both the nomad and the lama conclude is love's labour lost.
Religion, according to the lama, is the panacea for all improvement. So Mr. Fan may meet with religious, diMeulties. If he can, however, improve the stock and increase the' milk and multiply the yak he will be doing some service to his day and genera~ tion. No doubt he has faced the question of grazing on the Roof of the World. To multiply the cattle without improving the grazing would be fatal and only end in increasing the number of lean kine. There, is a gigantic field and tremendous opportunity which calls for considerable tact and patience, rae Mr, Lo Mei-luan, another member of the! Development Expedition, is an engineer, and. is on the frontier to improve the roads and highways, There is really some serious talk: of building a road between here and Yachow, In Shanghai three years ago we read that this road had already been constructed and that a new highway stretched from China into Tibet, This young Chinese engineer who has studied in America hopes to survey the different roads along the Tibetan border. He has an idea of surveying a highway between here and Sadyia on the Assam border, 'This task is stupendous if not impossible, but he hopes to make the survey. These' young men have great ambition, some of which may be realized. Road' building, however, across the Yangtze, Mekong, Salwen, Irrawady and Brahmaputra Valleys demands some engineering and a heavy outlay of money. The precipitation in upper Burma and upper Assam is heavy and will give railway and highway builders some~ thing to think about.
Again, such a roadway leads through very hostile country where the natives refuse to tolerate invasion of any description. The Mishmis and the Abors are still an untamed people and will resist any intrusion into their territory. Kingdom Ward is probably the greatest authority on this part of the find written by this great authority. The survey may not go through but an attempt! is being made.
Mr. Karl C. Lee, another member of the development commission, like Mr. Ralph Holder, is a Missouri graduate and a spe-dalist "im agriculture. Of the different members of the commission, his task is probably the most difficult. Sikang, where the commission hopes to do most of its work, is high, the greater part of it probably being close on 12,000 feet above sea level. Agri culture at such an altitude is both dificult and precarious. And he is not the first man to try it out.
Chinese farmers from other parts of the province of Szechuen have tried to grow cabbages at 14,000 feet and found they just simply wouldn't grow. Grain and wheat and other cereals also have been tried out at points above 10,000 feet and the dear little things would only stretch their tiny heads six inches or one foot above the ground. 'The Chinese agriculturist has a world-wide reputation and few farmers will grow things where the Chinese farmer grows them; but the Litang Plain, 14,000 feet high, has refused to grow anything but grass.' In despair the Szechuen farmer came to the conclusion that the 3,000 lamas in the lamasery had cursed the plain and therefore it would not grow vegetables or wheat. We have seen a little vegetable patch struggling bravely but the forees of nature seemed too hard for it, and it almost gave up the struggle.
Mr. Lee is a specialist so he may be able to] do what others have failed to accomplish. He may have the latest methods, the newest fertilizers and a whole "bag of tricks up his sleeve," which will make cabbages, carrots and turnips grow all over the Litang Plain.
'Again, he too may find himself in diffi culties.' The 3,000 lamas, as a rule; are not vegetable-loving people. They ' like ground barley and yak-butter tea, and this} appears to satisfy their every need, 365 days every year. With an extensive Chinese colonizing scheme on hand, however, vegetables will be needed, and plenty of them, so he will have to devise ways and means to grow them.
Daofu, five days northwest of Tachienlu, with an' altitude of 10,000, will grow vegetables and some cereals, but anything and everything other than these, has a terrible struggle for existence. Batang, with an altitude of 9,000 feet, is the garden of eastern Tibet, and' will produce almost anything.
Another member of the Commission is a mining engineer who is now on his way to coal and iron mountain some two and a half days from Tachienlu. He has gone there to explore the possibilities and, should what he has heard, prove correct the Tachienlu nomads may yet burn coal instead of yak manure, Mining engineers have so far found the border a poor place for minerals, but others may have better luck.
Bishop Giraudeau, 88 years old, is very deaf, but apart from that enjoys quite a measure of health. He finds considerable solace in his pipe and his Burgundy wine) and enjoys the days as they pass along. He: is always glad to meet visiting priests and among those who came to Tachienlu recently' was Pere Charrier, back from France. He has worked for many years in Mowkung, north of this city, but fell sick in 1935, s0 returned to his native land. The Catholic church has undoubtedly some godly men in her ranks, and among them is Pere Chartier. It Is indeed a pleasure to meet this saintly man and converse with him. I first met him in 1910 away up on the Jedo Pass. We were as ships that pass in the night, merely wishing each other good day, and passing on. Twenty-eight years passed and we had an opportunity of speaking with each other. was interesting to hear him speak of his beloved France. He is one of a family the members of which number 91. When the Pere arrived home the number was 89 and when he left it was 91. He told us that a change of government in France had very little, if any, effect upon the country as a whole. The common people were the backbone of the nation; and governments may come and governments may go, but France goes on for ever.
Pere Charrier came to China in 1906 and) has spent his life in different places along the frontier. This good man is doing fine work and God's blessing is resting upon him. He came through Haiphong and Yunnan and with him travelled two Italian priests for the leper asylum at Mosimien. Mother Marie will be glad to get the help of these fathers! fas she has a company of 162 lepers in the asylum. She has seven Sisters, however, working with her in this good work.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.