744
5. This small rebellion was, no doubt, attempted in consequence of the pre- occupation of the Imperial Government in the North, possibly with a view of inducing the allied Powers to secure peace in the South by a promise to consider the question of internal reform when the time arrived for the imposition of terms of peace upon the Imperial Government. I have heard from fairly well-informed sources this explanation of the rising. Had the Canton district responded or had the Viceroy acted with less promptitude, the situation might have become very critical. The movement was distinctly anti-dynastic as there was in the South among the Cantonese a strong feeling against, not alone the reigning dynasty, but against the people of the Northern provinces-a feeling of hostility apparently reciprocated by the Northern Chinese, who were quite as ready to murder a Cantonese as an Amer- ican or European, and who look upon them as foreigners, if not foreign devils. I had an illustration of this when the Boxer movement developed in Tientsin. A number of Cantonese young men were engaged in business in Tientsin, and some had gone there to attend the Chinese Medical School. These young men were regarded as foreigners and found themselves in a position of great danger, and with no apparent means of escape. Some Chinese gentlemen here waited upon me, and, explaining the position, requested my good offices in assisting their return to Canton and Hongkong, saying that they were prepared to pay ten thousand dollars for the necessary expenses, as the lives of Cantonese would be in grave peril if the Boxers had any success. I telegraphed to His Majesty's Consul at Tien- tsin asking his assistance in repatriating the Cantonese, for which I undertook to be responsible to the extent of the sum named, and he very kindly made the neces- sary arrangements, forwarding bills for over nine thousand dollars which were at once paid by the Chinese gentlemen who had approached me. A deputation of the young men whose escape had been secured waited upon me to express their gratitude, and one and all were assured that had they fallen into the hands of the insurgents their lives would have been taken. The incident was mentioned in the Chinese newspapers in Canton and has, I hope, had some effect in strengthening the cordial relations that exist at present between the Government of the two Kwangs and this Colony.
6. Among the land sales effected during the year was a large area sold to Messrs. BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE who propose to build docks there, one of which will be capable of taking in the largest ship now afloat. The Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company have applied for an additional area upon which the Company proposes to add another dry dock of equally large proportions, and as the Naval Yard extension now progressing includes at least one more dry dock of suitable capacity, the docking facilities of this port will in the near future equal, if not exceed, those of any port in the East.
7. The building of steam-launches proceeds apace, nearly one hundred having been constructed during the year. I question if, in any part in the world, better or cheaper steam-launches are built than those turned out in Hongkong. The extension of the boiler-making trade, due to this expansion of steamboat building, is now forcing itself upon our attention by complaints of the nuisance created by boiler-makers who have set up their noisy business ia quiet quarters of the town and proceed to prosecute it day and night. It may be necessary to confine this trade to a particular quarter.
8. I regret to have to report the recrudescence of plague at the usual season,. the end of February. The epidemic began at the end of February, and lasted 27 weeks, ceasing in the first week in July. During that time there were 1,050 cases with a case mortality of 95.5 per cent. In 1899 the epidemic lasted for thirty-eight weeks with 1,428 cases and a case mortality of 96.1 per cent. In considering this annual recurrence of plague, the situation of Hongkong renders it peculiarly difficult to deal with the introduction of disease from without, for the relief gra- dually obtained in other places by the death of the susceptible can hardly be looked for here with a perennial influx of susceptible coolies from the surrounding