September 12, 1895.]
missionaries, it being the policy of the mandarins to alienate all the natives from the foreigners. The Chengtu Commission of Inquiry, therefore, is simply being worked as a lever against the missionaries, and it is idle, under such circumstances, to expect either that justice will be done in connection with the recent riots and outrages or that they will be prevented for the future.
THE WEST RIVER.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
their way into court. Regulations are in force prohibiting dealings in shares and property by members of the Service, these regulations affecting more immediately the European officials. It is much more important that the money lending business should be forbidden, as it is likely to lead to more numerous and more serious abuses than ordinary investments. In the course of the trial on Thursday Mr. Justice WISE remarked that there was present in court an Indian gentleman who had been in the Government service only eleven years and who had saved $13,000; from which it would seem that the Government service must be a very remunerative occupation. Mr. WISE might usefully be asked by the Government to state all he knows about this wealthy mem ber of the Service and how he acquired his wealth.
THE POLICE MÅGISTRATE AND THE CHINESE CUSTOMS SERVICE.
C
в
In the course of the recent investigation into the extraordinary death of a man sup- posed to have been a gigman in the employ of the Chinese Customs, the Magistrate, addressing a member of the Customs Service, Mr. CHARLES HALBERG, who was giving evidence, said :- You understand you are "not obliged to answer any questions if you think you are conveying information you “would not like to convey." It does not appear that the witness had claimed any pro- tection, and if he had it would have been the Magistrate's duty to have examined the claim to see if it could be allowed under the rules governing state secrets documents.
"
|
198
was not quite the harmless practice he had at first supposed, that the piles of burning paper might be fairly described as bonfires, and that some regulation of the practice was desirable. It was accordingly ordered that suitable vessels should be used in which to burn the paper and that a bucket of water should be kept near while the burning was in progress. These reasonable regulations were cheerfully submitted to by the Chinese, at least we never heard of any complaint being made. It would seem, however, that they have now been allowed to fall into abeyance, for lately we have noticed large piles of paper being burnt in the streets without any precautions whatever being used, the paper not being placed in any vessel but loosely on the ground, and no water being at hand. A gust of wind might easily blow the burning paper against the woodwork of the neighbouring houses and so occasion a fire. The consistent enforce- ment of the regulations would cause less dis- content amongst the Chinese than allowing them to remain in abeyance one year and bringing them into operation the next, Spasmodic action in such matters is always to be deprecated.
REVIEW.
It is indeed to be feared, as a Bangkok contemporary remarks, that the British Government lost the best opportunity that has offered for the opening of the West River to foreign trade and navigation when the Chefoo Convention was signed and the late Sir THOMAS WADE was foolishly con- tent with the opening of Pakhoi as a treaty port. We fail, however, to see why, because the right was not then acquired, we should not obtain it now. No doubt it would not be exactly what the French Government desire, because they hope to draw all the trade through Tonkin, a hope that will not be realised in consequence of their illiberal commercial policy; but we cannot stand still and wait while French experiments are being tried, nor are we disposed to make the trade of Western China a French preserve. The French adopt in all cases a strictly selfish line, and if they are at any time strong enough to do so, they will keep a market for their exclusive exploitation, not caring a rap whose interests may suffer. The British Government, with a magnani- mous disregard of selfish considerations, have on the contrary always shown a disposition to admit other nations to share in the benefits
The probabilities are that a and privileges obtained by the expenditure member of the Chinese Customs Service would of British blood and treasure. If the
not ordinarily be able to claim protection British Minister induces the Chinese under those rules. But in the case in ques- Government to open up the West River to tion the witness had given no indication of British trade and navigation all other treaty any unwillingness to answer the questions Powers will equally benefit by the couces-put to him. The suggestion that he needing access to official despatches, uncollated not give any information he would rather and unedited. We have had short sketches of not give was quite spontaneous on the part the rise and progress of the colony, but hither- of the Magistrate and was very irregular to nothing like a complete history. Dr. Eitel and improper. The witness was sworn to has broken new ground and in giving us a full tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing record of the colony (commencing a couple of but the truth, and was apparently quite pre- centuries before its foundation) up to the end pared to fulfil his path. If the Chinese
of Sir John Pope Hennessy's administration he Customs Service desires to set up any claim
has rendered a genuine public service. of legal privilege for its officers it
be trusted to advance the claim itself; it is quite unnecessary for a Hongkong Magis trate to go out of his way to put them on their guard.
sion. Great Britain never demands any exclusive trade privilege; unlike France and Russia, she does not seek to secure a monopoly to the detriment of other Powers. Nevertheless, it would appear probable that her Representative at Peking obtains very grudging support from his diplomatic colleagues. If Sir Nicholas O'CONOR had only been well supported, or even unopposed, it is hardly likely that his efforts to secure this very reasonable concession would not long ago have successful.
MONEYLENDING IN THE GOVERN- MENT SERVICE.
The case tried in the Summary Court on Thursday, in which an Indian watchman sued a Chinese interpreter in the Supreme Court for money alleged to have been lent on promissory notes, should direct the atten- tion of the Government to the necessity of interdicting the borrowing and lending of money by members of the service. Mr. Lt HONG MI, the defendant, admitted giving the two promissory notes in question, but said they had been paid and destroyed. Further, he said that he had obtained two loans of $100 each from two Indians for the compradore of a steamer. We have no wish to suggest that there was anything in itself irregular in Mr. LI HONG MEE'S action, but we do say that the business of negotiating loans ought not to be followed by mem- bers of the Service, and more especially by a court interpreter, whose official services may often be required in connection with the numerous money lending cases that find
or state
may
CHINESE BONFIRES IN THE
STREETS.
}
|
Europe in China. The History of Hongkong from the Beginning to the year 1882. By E. J. EITEL, Ph.D. (Tubing), Inspector of Schools, Hongkong. London: Luzac & Co. Hongkong: Kelly & Walsh, Ld. 1895. DR. EITEL is to be congratulated on the ex- cellent history he has produced, and the colony also may be congratulated on at length having its story told with a completeness worthy of the subject. Hitherto the ordinary resident has been dependent for the most part on tradition for what he has known of the earlier days of Hongkong, and if he wished to study any particular period he could only do so by of the contemporary newspapers and seek- laboriously searching through the files
and overrules them all." Few of the Governors
The first nine chapters are devoted to a history of British relations with China up to 1841, the tenth chapter gives the pre-British history of the island of Hongkong, and with the eleventh chapter we enter
on the history of the island as a British colony. The chapters are divided according to the administrations of the different Governors, thongh, as the author says in his preface, "each Governor is but a transient visitor, each pos- sessed of his own idiosyncracies, and each con- Some seven years ago the Chinese prac- trolled by an ever shifting series of Secretaries tice of lighting bonfires in the street at of State for the Colonies," and behind them this season attracted attention, owing to the all is the ideal but none the less real entity, the action taken by Governor DES VEUX in genius of British public opinion, which inspires stopping prosecutions by the police in con- have left much personal impress upon the colony. nection therewith. His Excellency, who In the early days there was some creative had probably at that time never seen one of work to be done in connection with the ad- these bonfires or realised the danger they ministration, but to the later Governors was constitute, took the view that the practic left the comparatively simple task of running the was a harmless one and ought not to be inter-machine that their predecessors had built up and fered with. The bonfires are connected with adjusted. Some of them have run it quietly, "joss pidgin,” being intended for the burn machine has gone on all the same, receiving ing of paper clothes. Now, no one additions and improvements as circumstances would wish to interfere unduly with required, though there is little in it that this or any of the religious rites and ceremonies that Administrator can claim as his personal of the natives, but when their observ-invention. The division of chapters adopted ance brings into existence a public by Dr. Eitel is, however, the most convenient danger it is necessary that reasonable precautions should be taken. Sir WILLIAM Des Voeux, when the subject was ventilated and he inquired into it more closely, satisfied himself that the burning of paper clothes
others with much noise and fuss, but the
that could be selected, notwithstanding that it may seem to give to the personal influence does not possess. The growth at Shanghai of the respective Governors an importance it has been even more remarkable than that of Hongkong and it has been accomplished without