July 4, 1895.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
OF SZECHUEN,
lesson will no doubt have to be read to thein out, and she will not be slow to grasp the of years ago. Let Lau be tried in the same, very sharply before these outrages are chance afforded her. It is true that she has way, before a tribunal in which representa abandoned, because owing to the long con- a good deal on her hands; the campaigu in tives of China, Great Britain, France, and tinued immunity from retribution enjoyed Madagascar will hardly prove a mere the United States sit as judges. If the mandarins have formed a belief that the triumphal march past; but she has long guilt cannot be brought home to him, Western Powers are afraid of China. To been spoiling for a fight, and a brush with well and good; but if it be shown that the overlasting shame of the Foreign Minis- her old enemy China would not be un- he instigated the riots, or without hav- ters, their policy during the past few years has welcome to either her army or navy. Unless, ing actually instigated them took no steps
or to afford protec given only too much colour to that supposi- therefore, the Chinese Government are pre- to prevent them tion, and even now the British and Ameri-pared to lick the dust and promptly concede tion to the foreigners, let sentence be can Ministers have not, apparently, ven- all demands made by M. GERARD it is quite passed upon him adequate to his offence. tured to insist upon proper redress for conceivable that they may have to pay more In the case of PHEA Yor, after sentence the gross injuries suffered by the British and heavily for the Szechuen outrages than they was passed the question arose whether the American missionaries. Possibly the advent have had to for their bad faith in Korea. imprisonment should take place in French of Lord SALISBURY to the Foreign Office may
or Siamese territory. This is a point which, in the case of Liu and any of his compeers bring about a change in the abject attitude of Sir NICHOLAS O'CONOR at Peking, HOW TO DEAL WITH THE VICEROY who may be joined with him in the trial. though we cannot be too sanguine on this
should be decided by the convention consti- point, for Lord SALISBURY was at the Foreign Office when the last outburst of That the Viceroy of Szechuen, LIU PING-tuting the Court, and, as no confidence coulf be entertained in the Chinese Government anti-foreign feeling in Mid-China took place, have occurred in his province there can be be better to arrange that it should be carried CHANG, is responsible for the outrages that to see the sentence duly carried out, it would and nothing was done in the matter.
little doubt, but it is difficult to believe that out abroad. If the Viceroys and other bigh the Foreign Office, as at the Colonial Office, he can have furnished such an utterly idiotic officials of the Chinese Empire saw that by the permanent officials pull the strings, and it is only in matters likely to be brought statement of the origin of the disturbances instigating or allowing outrages upon up in Parliament and discussed on party Times. According to our contemporary, Lt to ten or twenty years' penal servitude in s as is alleged by the Peking and Tientsin foreigners they rendered themselves liable lines that the Secretary of State will take has sent to Tientsin a despatch reporting foreign gaol, suy at Hongkong or Saigon, the trouble to form an independent opinion. that the affair commenced by a foreigner there would be no more riots like those of The Minister at Peking, too, still remains somewhat of a dark horse. It must be confessed who had got into a crowd using his stick to Chengtu. There has been too much trifling however, that there seems little chance of the save himself from being hustled; the crowd in the past; the time for decided action has author of the Burinah Convention ever doing fight, reached his house, and then fired, coolies; it is the leaders and
got angry, whereupon the foreigner took to
now arrived. It is no use punishing a few anything but truckle to the mandarins. Sir THOMAS WAPE spent himself in arguing killing two persons. Then the crowd gutted the outrages that must be got but that
and burnt the building. with the Ministers of the Tsungli Yamen,
the punish- ment of the offenders is left entirely in the hands of the Chinese Government. France has already demanded that Lau shall be tried and that a French representative shall interested should join in that demand. take part in the trial. The other Powers
At
Sit JOHN WALSHAM gave way entirely, and pigeon-boled all complaints; but Sir NICHOLAS O'CONOR seems to have surpassed both in weakness and complacency. It is most unfortunate for British interests that they are not represented at Peking by a ng man, who knows what he wants and strong will not be put off by lies and vague promises.
好
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'Inside,” the re- | will never be done as long ustigators of
port goes on to state, the people found two "Chinese children, kept in a cage of some "kind. They were in a state of suspended "animation. These children were taken to there called in, who, on examining them, "the yamen and skilful Chinese doctors were
"found some kind of black drug intro- ❝duced into their nostrils, which was the
ADDITIONAL TAXATION ON
OPIUM.
China is now casting about for schemes to raise the necessary funds to defray the charges of the Japanese Indemnity. The Customs revenue has always been regarded as a certain income by the Peking Govern. ment, but the bulk of that revenue will now be required to pay the interest on the foreign loans that are to be contracted. The de- ficiency must be made up by some means and the high officials throughout the Em- pire have been asked to report by memorials any schemes they can devise to raise funds and also any expenses which in their opinion could be cut down. What readier means could be found of raising additional revenue than imposing extra taxation on foreign goods, especially opium ? Such seems to be the idea that has presented itself to the mind of the Shanghai Taotai, who bas been in communication with the Opium Guild on the subject. According to the China Gazette, his proposition to the guild is "to levy a tax of Tls. 20 upon every case of "imported opium towards the special fund “which the Central Government has directed "the provinces to send up to Peking. The Opium Guild had already consented to pay a voluntary tax of Tls. 2 per chest, "and the Taotal proposed that the new im- “position should be also considered in the "light of a voluntary and patriotic offering,
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cause of their insensibility. By the use of * remedies the doctors restored them to con- If France wishes to acquire a grip on “sciousness, when the children related how China she has now a splendid opportunity." they had been kidnapped by the foreigner, By the infamous outrages on the "who administered the drug, and they knew missions in Szechuen she has a strong" no more. Upon this dreadful crime being claim for substantial reparation, to say no- brought to light, by an open examination | thing of other little bills for organised piracies in a Chinese court of law, the people were by Chinese troops in Tonkin, and the brutal" fired with indignation and the disturbances murder of a French missionary in Korea by "were spreading in all directions." This is Chinese troops. There is nothing that just the sort of tale that the literati, men France may not have if she only chooses to like the notorious CHOU HAN, are constantly insist upon it. Ten thousand French troops putting forth to inflame the passions of the would suffice for the conquest of Yunnan or people, but that a responsible officer of the Kwangsi and Hainan, China is utterly Empire should invent or repeat anything of helpless; her troops are not worth counting; the kind in a formal despatch seems altogether her fleet is a vanished quantity; and she incredible, for it cannot be supposed that he might be split up into a dozen kingdoms in believed it himself or that he could expect it three months by any great military Power to be believed by the Peking Government. Now is the time, if the French Government Yet the Peking and Tientsin Times says have determined to extend their empire in "it is certain that such an idiot's lie is the Far East, to lop off branches from the the Viceroy Liu's formal statement of the effete Chinese trunk. Well might CHANG"case received in the Viceregal yamen at CHIH-TUNG, as reported, wring his hands "Tientsin.” If that be so it must be when he heard of the outrages in Szechuen. taken as proof of his complicity and the He knows how utterly defenceless China is, duty of the Foreign Ministers at Peking and he is well aware of French and to insist upon the condign punishment Russian ambitions. No more fatuous act of LIU would be clear. Mere' removal could possibly have been perpetrated than from office or degradation in rank would the senseless destruction of these mis- be a quite inadequate penalty for the sions. If only the mandarins had confined | offence. Indeed, Liu's removal from the outrages to British, American, and Scan-the Viceroyalty had already been ordered dinavian missions, all might have been well; before the riots broke out and for reasons at the worst there would only have been unconnected with his treatment of foreigners," But the members of the guild do not strictly limited pecuniary indemnity to be and it is said that, thinking nothing worse see it that way and we do not think the paid, and the organisers of the pastime of could happen to him, he has taken advantage British opium merchants will allow the missionary baiting would have been free to of his brief remaining span of office to wreak" illegal imposition to be carried out with- prepare new projects of the same kind in his hatred on the missionary establish-out protest." Some years ago the late... other districts. But to put their head in ments in the province. If the Foreign | Viceroy of Canton, LI HAN-CHANG, thought the tiger's mouth by destroying French Governments do their duty, Lau will be he could set the Opium Convention missions and add to the already great provo- brought to formal trial before a mixed at defiance and levy what duties be cation suffered by that irritable Power, was tribunal, as was the case with PERA pleased on the drug, but he was very soon surely the acme of folly! France has still Yor, the Siamese mandarin who was undeceived. By the Additional Article to the recollection of the humiliation suffered accused of treachery to a French party in the Chefoo Convention Her Majesty's Go- by her in the abortive war of 1884-5 to wipe the troubles on the Annam frontier a couple vernment agreed that lekin not exceeding...a
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