This was for England some return for the mortification she had experienced twenty months earlier at the time of the Gérard Convention. If, therefore, in Yunnan, in spite of the equality of rights existing between Great Britain and France, the advantage was with the latter, by reason of the natural conditions rendering access less difficult from Tongking than from Burmah, the opening of the West River was a check for French policy, which had vigorously opposed it. By this waterway European vessels—that is to say, almost exclusively British steamers coming from Hong-Kong—would, in the first place, be able to trade with the rich valley of the lower Si-kiang, which crosses Kwang-tung, and reascends to the frontier of Kwang-tung, where they would meet the junks which bring to this point at a small cost the varied products of this province, and, moreover, distribute merchandise from Hong-Kong to the extreme navigable points of the West River and its affluents. These points are situated at a great distance in the interior, almost on the frontiers of Yunnan and Tongking, and at Lung-chau, thirty miles from Lang-son, one can see at high tide junks from Canton. Therefore all the commerce of Kwang-si which France had so coveted was to be drained by this new channel. French diplomacy endeavoured to repair the unfavourable impression produced by this Anglo-Chinese treaty, which effaced the greater part of the advantages conceded to her on the frontier of Tongking, and in June, 1897, it was stated in Paris that China had ceded to France the right to construct a railway from Lao-kai, on the Red River, between Tongking and Yunnan-hsien, the capital of Yunnan, and to prolong it to Nanning-fu and even northward beyond the line projected to Lang-son and Lung-chau. This last concession should reserve for France all the traffic of the western Kwang-si, provided that it is really worth while constructing a railway to obtain it; for unquestionably navigable rivers have a distinct advantage over railways in so mountainous and poor a country. As soon as the former are opened they can be navigated, whereas it will require time to construct the railways, which, moreover, are very costly. In February, 1898, I was able to see for myself that the Si-kiang was already traversed by steamers, whereas the railway from Lang-son to Lung-chau, the concession for which was given in 1896, was not even commenced, on account of the many difficulties that had arisen with the local authorities. The opening in 1899 of Nanning to foreign commerce is well calculated to deprive France even of this little traffic, which will revert to Canton. CHAPTER X CHINA AND THE POWERS, 1897–99—‘SPHERES OF INFLUENCE,’ AND THE ‘OPEN DOOR’