148
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
June 9, 1897.
been effected secretly and suddenly. The veloped Pachmari in the Central Pro | will find the conditions rendered
At
to 7,000 feet high and to-day one third of the English troops in India are in the Himalayas or Nilghirris, and the number is being constantly increased. In Mauritius a wholesale movement of troops has taken place to Curepipe, and the sea-level garrison of Port Louis has been reduced to a mini- mum. In the West Indies the name of Sir WILLIAM GOMM remains as a historic landmark, inasmuch as by the occupation of the station of Newcastle he removed the English soldier to the mountains and greatly reduced the sickness of the troops. Were it not for the necessity of keeping English troops as a final means of main taining order near the large Indian cities fully one half or more of the troops there would be in the Hills.
Jutogh, Mussoorie exists though Landour is close by it, and a great social catastrophe need not occur because our countrymen in the army come in some proportion to Vic- toria Peak.
ANTI-FOREIGN FEELING IN JAPAN.
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the
A short time ago we published a transla- tion of a report drawn up by a committee of the Haiphong Chamber of Commerce on Franco-Japanese treaty. The report, which recommended that the treaty should not be applied to Indo-China, was un- animously adopted by the Chamber, one of the reasons advanced against the treaty being the anti-foreign feeling alleged to prevail in Japan. "This feeling, the report stated, "is disclosed in thousands of ways to the Europeans who visit Japan or negotiate business matters "with them. It was this feeling that en- "gendered the outrages committed by the Japanese against the CZAREWITCH when he travelled simply as a tourist in the Far East, and against Lr HUNG-CHANG when he ought to have been doubly protected as An old man and a plenipotentiary of a conquered nation. This hatred of foreig ners is directed to all, French and others." Commenting on this passage the Japan Mail. says:-"If any events were calculated to de- "monstrate the non-existence of such hatred, "the outrages in question were precisely "those events. Had there been the slight-
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allegation is incorrect. The matter has vinces. Wellington in the Madras much less agreeable by the neighbourhood been talked about for more than two years. Nilghirris is also an important military hill of the soldier. Simla survives as a perfect One time it was supposed the idea had | station. All these stations are from 6,000 social centre though the soldier lives at been dropped, but it was currently reported month or two ago that negotiations were again in progress. Knowing the danger impending it is much to be regretted that the gentlemen now interesting themselves in the matter did not take action earlier, for all they would then have had to do in order to secure the property would have been to pay the price asked by the owner, who was desirous of selling, whereas now they have the difficult task before them of obtaining the property from an unwilling seller. Under the cur cimstances, girding at the military authorities seems quite uncalled for. The community had as good a chance of buying the property as the War Office had, but they failed to take advantage of it. Now that public opinion has been aroused as to the value of what has been lost we can only hope that the attempt being made to recover it may be successful, though we greatly fear the case will afford an illus- tration of the adage that lost opportunities never return. If that should unfortun- ately be so the European community will have to find new residential areas on the heights and we would appeal to Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON to devote the remaining months he has to spend amongst us to setting in train a wide and comprehensive scheme for the opening up of the more eastern hill district by the construction of roads and, if it be found feasible, of tramways also. It has been suggested to us that a tramway starting from the Plantation Road station of the present tramway, running to Magazine Gap, and thence onwards past Wanchai Gap to Wongneichong Gap, would prove a public boon by opening up extensive areas upon which hill residences might be built. If it were thought undesirable to undertake this as a Government work possibly a Public Company might be induced to undertake it if it were offered grants of land along the route from the sale of which it might ulti- mately recoup itself and make a profit. This system is frequently adopted for the pro- motion of railways in new countries and it might on consideration be found not un- adapted to the development of the hill district in Hongkong.
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It must never be forgotten that the soldier's life in the English army is one of intense climatic strain. From India there are year after year returning to England crowds of soldiers who refuse at any price to re-engage, as they find the soldier's life in India extremely hard to bear and devoid of nearly all the enjoyments of existence. How to induce them to re-engage, nay, even to enlist, is the problem of the English
The word soldier-statesman.
conscrip tion" is a very ugly one, but the words "universal service are still less easy to di- gest. Fireside Imperialists who across their walnuts and their wine annex mentally whole continents to the English flag seem to for- get that these annexations must be garri- Boned by a voluntarily enlisted army. The modern Continental State places its pistol as it were at the head of every citizen aged twenty years and asks of him " your money or your life," and compels its citizens to garrison its distant colonies nolens volens under conscription rules. The English people up to this date have escaped this blood tax, and they escape the risk and the wear and tear of annexation and conquest and profit in their business as the fing extends its sway. The nation escapes this terrible tax only on the policy of day by day and hour by hour investigating the causes which operate against the soldier's life and health and by doing all it can to. remove or miminise these causes. So long as it does this it may enlist a SOLDIERS ON SUMMITS.
volunteer army; when it fails in it the one resource is compulsory military service It may be interesting at the present time for all classes and all ranks. The mo- to glance at the movement which has heen ment conscription comes many reforms in going on for many years past for placing the the inner life of the soldier and his lodg- English soldier in a better position to stand ment and surroundings will come by the tropical climates by locating him on the indirect pressure of sons and brothers higher grounds in India and the colonies. serving actually in the ranks of the army The terrible death and sickness rates of the and enduring its drawbacks, and the presence troops in the West and East Indies in past in the ranks of highly connected men able times has been the driving force moving the to express their opinions and who must be authorities in this matter. In India Landour listened to. Reforms so would certainly in the Hills north of Deyrah was the first come, but at the cost of the blood-tax. Eng- place in the Himalayas occupied by the lishmen more rational see their many soldier. This was about 1880. Simla came advantages in escaping from this servitude, into our hands in the later "Thirties," and and in return are as a rule willing to pay with it came Kussowlie, Subathoo, and for all reasonable reforms in the soldier's Dugshai. The annexation of the Punjaub life. One of those reforms in this colony is to brought Murree, and eventually Dalhousie give to the soldier and to his wife and and Dharmsala, and of later years the long child share-a just and fair share of the line of military stations on the Murree, advantages of the higher level climate. Abbottabad Road, which now literally bris-Whether in order to do that it is necessary tles with English soldiers. Nynee Tal and Darjeeling are also important stations, but the "soldier's friend," Lord NAPIER OF MAGDALA, by the opening up of the large stations of Ranee-Khet and Chakrata, conferred a real boon on the soldiers serving
Bengal. The same chief de-
to dislodge any portion of the civilian com- munity, or whether a suitable site could not be found elsewhere, is another question, already referred to in a preceding article, but even if the decision to turn the Mount Austin Hotel into barracks be adhered to we do not think residents in the neighbourhood
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est attempt on the part of the Japanese press to condone the acts of Teuda Sanzo "and KOYAMA TOYOTARO, or the slightest 'indication that any section of the Japanese public approved their acts, the Haiphong "Chamber's libel might be defended." But "each of those lamentable outrages evoked "universal and unequivocal execration. "The assassin of Viscount MORI, the would- . 'be assassin of Count OKUMA, found admirers, "but not a solitary whisper of extenuation "was heard in the case of the attack upon "the CZAREWITOH and the Viceroy. It was left for the Haiphong Chamber of Com- merce to deduce the sentiment of a nation from the acts of two solitary fanatics, such as every crisis begets in every country, "and to ignore altogether the acts of the "nation itself. On which side is the "hatred? Frankly and honestly, can any one, after perusing this resolution of the 'Haiphong Chamber of Commerce, hesitate
to say
on which side the hatred and prejudice are really operative?”. Our contemporary might also have referred in this connection to the comments of the Indo-China press on the Japanese Commissions that have recently visited that country, which the journalists appear to think have been despatched with sinister designs. Whatever may be the feeling in France, in Indo-China the rise of Japan appears to be regarded with grave alarm, we might almost say with abject fear. The reason may probably be found in the suspicion, not unfounded, that France may encounter in Japan a strong opponent of her schemes of territorial aggrandisement in the Far East, and especially in the jealousy with which Japan's acquisition of Formosa is regarded by French expansionists, who thought that the reversion of that valuable possession belonged to France. It must be admitted, however, that the statement of the Hai- phong Chamber Committee as to the exist ence of an anti-foreign feeling in Japan