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THE RECORD OF THE YEAR.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
with the assistance of France, made loan to China of the amount necessary to meet the first instalment, and it was at one time feared that she had thereby obtained a financial grip on the empire which would virtually reduce China to a Russian protec- torate. Reports were at the same time current of advantages to be accorded to the other members of the triple alliance. Never was the prestige of England in the Far East so abased
this during anxious period, but subsequent events afforded the opportunity of re-establishing it in some measure and China was made to understand that England is still a power to whose word respectful attention must be
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England's patience whi safe to overstep. The taught them in connec of faith in ceding to Fran in the South-west which had to China by Great Britain of the Burmak frontier on condit should never be ceded to anoth The result of that perfidious acti part of China has been the resum Great Britain of a large extent of that had been recognised as Chinese and the moving forward of the Burmah frontier.
The year 1895 has been fraught with events of vast importance and marks the commencement of what promises to be a new era in the Far East, both politically and com- mercially. When the year opened China and Japan were in the throes of war, but China had been forced to recognise the superiority of her foe and was suing for peace. After trying to conduct negotiations by means of missions not fully accredited she at last saw the necessity of abandoning
Russia, France, and Germany were not her shuffling policy and approaching the conqueror in an open and straightforward
disinterested in their interference on China' manner. LI HUNG-CHANG was then sent
behalf to secure the retrocession of Liaotung to Shimonoseki to meet the Japanese repre-paid,
by Japan. The first named power looks for→ sentatives and formal negotiations for peace In May an anti-foreign outbreak occurred ward to the time when the reversion of the were opened. These were delayed by an in the province of Szechuen, instigated and territory in question will fall to her own attempt on the life of the veteran Chinese encouraged by the infamous Viceroy LIU.share and in the meantime she is to be Minister by a man of the soshi class, but Much destruction of mission property took allowed to run her Trans-Siberian railway fortunately the wound, though severe, was place and the missionaries were compelled through Manchuria and, it is believed, has not fatal. As a reparation for the outrage to flee to the treaty ports, but happily there secured the right to carry a branch line the Emperor of Japan decreed an armistice, was no loss of life, the orders to the rioters down to Port Arthur. Rumours as to the and this was the end of hostilities between being that they should stop short of murder; acquisition of a naval station by her have the two countries. LI was able to resume the directors of the movement apparently also been in circulation, but, so far, have not his duties in a few days, and on the 17th considering it imprudent to go to that extent. been verified. The establishment of Russian April the treaty of peace was signed.. By it There was for a time the usual weakness domination over the whole of Manchuria China ceded to Japan the Liaotung Penin- and vacillation on the part of the foreign seems, however, to be only a question of sula and the island of Formosa, undertook | Governments in dealing with the case, and time. Meanwhile, as a heavy creditor of to pay an indemnity of Tls. 200,000,000, | while the policy of "talkee-talkee "was still China, she is in a position to exert a potent influence on the councils of the Govern agreed to the opening of several new ports in progress the world was startled by news
France as her share of the diploma- and to the navigation of the Yangtze by of a diabolical outrage in another province, ment. steamers up to Chungking, authorised the au outrage which has been unparalleled tic success of the three powers has secured On the 1st an extension of her Tonkin frontier and importation of machinery and the establish- since the Tientsin massacrel ment of factories on foreign lines, and August, near Kucheng, in Fulkien, a band further trading facilities in that district ; undertook to negotiatiate a separate of men belonging to the Vegetarian Society while Germany has obtained settlement con- commercial treaty. The latter is still swept down in the early morning on a mission cessions at Tientsin, and Hankow and proba- pending. The cession of Liaotung was station and put to death the Rev. Mr. and bly other advantages not yet made public. not approved by Russia, and France and Mrs. STEWART, their governess, one child, Germany joined with her in demanding the and six ladies, two other children being badly restoration of the territory to China. For a wounded, one of whom subsequently died. time there seemed some danger of a resort The British Covernment at last recognised to force by these powers to compel com- the necessity of effective action to suppress pliance with their wishes, Japan being the anti-foreign spirit that threatened to naturally reluctant to surrender her fruits sweep over the whole country and a naval of victory, but ultimately she yielded to the demonstration was made on the Yangtze to pressure brought to bear upon her and enforce compliance with the demand for the agreed to retrocede the territory upon pay-degradation of LIU, the ex-Viceroy of Sze- ment of an additional indemnity of Tschuen, for his connection with the riots in that 50,000,000. The evacuation was finally province. Liu. had already been superseded completed on the 25th December. Formosa in the Viceroyalty and was in disgrace for Japan was allowed to keep and she com matters unconnected with the outrages in menced its occupation in June and completed question, but the Chinese Government had it in October. The officials and some of the declined to deprive him of all official rank populace of the island objected to the sur- as demanded by the British Government. render and the world was entertained with a On an ultimatum being presented, however, and a naval demonstration on the Yangtsze being made, they promptly did what was demanded, a decree being issued for ever degrading Liu. The atonement was miser- ably quadequate, and although its execution created an inpression for the moment it is of a nature that is likely to be soon forgotten. Had the surrender of the offender's person for incarceration in a British possession been demanded and enforced the officials throughout the empire would have quaked in their shoes and the effect would
for or have contiqued
many years to come. As to the Kucheng atrocity, the officials who so lamentably failed in their duty of preserving order have not yet been dealt with, hor, so far as is known, has any definite demand in that sense been made, but a trial, by a mixed commission, of the men immediately concerned in the outrage was insisted upon and a large number of the culprits were executed. The Peking Go- vernment has reason to congratulate itself that it has been so leniently dealt with in these matters, but the pressure brought to bear by England, though it stopped far short of the point to which it ought to have been carried, nevertheless brought home to them the fact that there are limits to
little political comedy in the declaration of the Formosan Republic, with TANG, the Chinese Governor, as President. In the North the resistance to the new owners proved very short lived, TANG ignominiously stealing away when the Japanese ap- proached Taipehfu. In the South Lit, the Black Flag chief, who had been placed in command of the Chinese troops, made a show of holding out, and it must be recorded to his credit that he kept his men under control, the foreign com- munities not being interfered with annoyed to any extent, though great alarm for their safety existed when the British Admiral deemed it necessary to withdraw the guard which had been landed for their protection. When the Japanese ships finally appeared off the southern ports, however, and their land forces approached from the north, LIU, like his confrère TANG, secretly made his escape and shortly after- wards appeared at Canton. Formosa is now a Japanese possession, and under its new govern- ment a large development of the trade of the island may be expected. Meantime the ques- tion of raising the money required by China to discharge the indemnity to Japan had caused great political commotion, Russia,
The commercial effects of the China-Japan treaty have already begun to manifest them- selves. The recognition of the right to import foreign machinery into China had pre yiously been nominally secured by the action of the diplomatic body at Peking, but the conclusion of the treaty with Japan placed the matter beyond doubt and removed all possibility of further obstruction by the Native authorities. No less than four foreign Companies have been formed at Shanghai to carry on cotton factories, the natives have also seized upon the opportunity with avidity, and Japanese Companies are likewise projected, so that the Model Settlement bids fair to become in a few years a second Manchester. There has already been a large increase in the popula tion of the place in consequence of the new development and property has greatly in- creased in value. Steamship lines to con- nect Shanghai with newly opened ports of Hangchow and Soochow are in course of promotion, and will prove a step towards the introduction of steam navigation on all the inland waterways of the Empire. Reports of railway construction have also been rife and it seems tolerably certain that a line will shortly be made between Tien tain and a point within a few miles of Peking, while the construction of a trunk line from aits the latter point to Hankow now only the subscription of the necessary fund Chinese capitalists, which, however, a large "only.”
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The development of manufacturing. dustry at Shanghai and elsewhere Far East will naturally affect · certa branches of the import trade, but its gene result will not be to diminish the volume of the foreign trade of China, bu rather to increase it, and therefore to crease the tonnage employed and perity of Hongkong, for it i trade that this colony is mainl During the past year the ship in the trade of the Far East has sho