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they send auy boats, as the sea was running high and the boats would have been lost if sent. The crews from the ships that were in harbour got to the wreck by land, and tried to save the crew of the Fu-ching by means of firing rockets with lines attached, but the Chinese did not know what to do with the lines that reached them, as they had never used them before.
The pupils of the Chinese Naval School on shore also came to the rescue, and tried by signalling to make the men on board under. stand how to use the lines. At one time the Chinese made an attempt to use the line, but whilst doing so a wave coyered the vessel, and
·washed off several of the men. The others seeing this stopped the work. At this time the waves were nearly as high as the lighthouse, and in the narrow entrance from the roads to the harbour the water was seething.
The captains of the two Chinese men-of-war in harbour apparently considered the situation of the Fa-ching entirely hopeless, as they did not even send out a crew to the wrecked vessel.
At midday the Fu-ching was a total wreck, on which two or three men were still seen clinging to the ropes, but after a short time they also
fell into the water.
It is generally believed here that the roads of Port Arthur daing the N. and S. winds are very dangerous, and therefore the Chinese ships in summer used to stay at Wei-hei-wei. Dur. ing such a storm as the one that raged on the 9th inst. any small ship anchoring outside would probably get lost. It is also believed that a large breakwater is required, so as to prevent such sad sccidents in the future.-Nagasaki
Press.
RAILWAY AND MINING DEVELOP- MENT IN CHINA,
For some time past both home and Shanghai, papers have been discussing a matter which in obedience to modern news requirements, we should have been the first to chronicle; we refer to the mining and railway concessions which have been granted in Shansi. We have of course been intimately acquainted with every phase of the negotiations which have just been concluded, but nothing was to be gained by referring to them until they reached a decisive stage, and much might have been lost by premature publicity.
While every year is decreasing the difficulty which surrounds any new venture in China, negotiations for the operation of Western en- terprise must for the present be involved with complications and obstructions demanding the utmost skill and patience for their circumven- tion, and the less notoriety the process achieves the greater, as a rule, are the chances of success. The operations of the Peking Syndicate offer a striking and grateful contrast to those of the late Hooley-Jamieson combination, which billed ite proceedings in every port, and made Reu- ter's cable quiver beneath conflicting announce- ments of alternate victory and defeat, only to subside, like some exhausted bubble, the moment it came in contact with the hard wall of fact. The Peking Syndicate, on the contrary, has been quietly sustaining a policy of persever. ing effort for over two years, and as far as ob- taining bona fide concessions is concerned, have to be heartily congratulated upon a very suc- cessful issue. The contract which finally re- ceived the imperial seal very recently, confers the privilege of working the coal, iron, and pet. roleum mines of central and southern Shansi, which experts have pronounced one of the richest mineral provinces in China. The contract also confers the right to construct railways and cnt canals to join trunk lines and navigable water-ways, without which the mining right would of course be valueless. No expense has been spared to verify at the hands of mining experts the glowing reports as to the producing capacity of the districts included in the cou- cession, and not a word has been urged in its favour which cannot be substantiated.
The syndicate is powerfully backed at home, amongst those interested in it being, we believe, the Rothschilds, the Marquis of Lorne, and Messrs. Hambro, and the floating of the com pany to work the concession should, therefore, not be a work of either time or difficulty.
The granting of the concession has been ac companied, as was inevitable, by another to the
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{July 2, 1898.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Russo-Chinese Bank, which has secured the views may have been formerly, must feel and right to construct a line from Tai-yuen-fu, the realise that a great trading nation must indeed capital of Shansi, to Cheng-ting-fu in Chihli,take a back seat, if it have not the power to with the privilege of forming branch lines and unite abroad and protect under its own flag its of conducting mining operations along the wandering, fortune-seeking, money-making sous. route.
And out of those who in a foreign country make their fortunes, fifty in every hundred are lost to their own nation, not through any fault of their own, but through the inactivity and short sightedness of their own country, whose narrow views they can no longer understand nor excuse out here, where they meet every nation in the world, competing against each other in the struggle for life.
These contracts open up an immediate pro- spect of railway as well as mining development in North China, and every mile of metal laid helps, as we well know, to hasten the operation of China's resuscitation, and drive another nail into the coffin of ignorance and superstitious fear.-Peking and Tientsin Times.
A GERMAN OPINION OF
HONGKONG.
(Being one of the series of letters written by A. von Sonnenberg from the German transport Krefeld and afterwards from Kiaochau)
[SPECIALLY TRANSLATED FOR THE
SINGAPORE FREE PRESS,"]
In summing up the impressions made by my stay in Singapore, lasting hardly four hours, I said in my last letter that the British Govern- ment has simply done marvels in its colonies, and these impressions are strongly confirmed in Hongkong, this powerful metropolis of the Far East, "Our Island" as the British like, and justly like, to call it,
Everything the visitor meets with in this town is done on an astonishingly large and liberal scale. Even the most exacting and critical eye can hardly find fault with anything here, and many a large European town might take a leaf out of the book of her Far Eastern sister, chiefly with regard to public life and public order.
Similar to that of a national club in which the dispersed members of one nation meet on. foreign soil, is the stimulus of the country's flag, but this must not be a flag in name only, it must be powerfully protected, and care must be taken that by no narrow view, brought over from by. gone times, life and expansion beneath the Ger man colours are hampered, or the easy going British rule will after all be preferred by most. Europeans to the hundred and one German laws - and regulations.
In both these directions, I think, we hare still much to learn from our British cousins' ex- perience in these matters, and when Germany has succeeded in doing in Kiaochau what Eng- land has done after possessing this small island. for 50 years, only then can she rest.
Nature has been more than kind to our South-Chinese model. The splendid, beautiful bay is framed in by high mountains, which rise. immediately out of the harbour, their slopes dotted with country houses, and the summit, called the "Victoria Peak," which is about 1,800 feet high, is covered with buildings. Well furnished hotels stand next to surprisingly Nothing, absolutely, is done poorly or meanly, comfortable barracks. Convalescent homes for everything is done largely and well and tending soldiers and sailors are built here in the heal- to render life as agreeable as possibleto the Brit-thiest part of the island at such expense and ish masters. Scrupulously clean, well laid out streets, electric light, elegant hotels, attractive shops, beautiful public gardens, in which nightingales make their home, all these are the noticable features which attract the eye of the hurried visitor as he walks round the European quarter.
This is laid out round the beautiful harbour, more like a large lake, in which hundreds of ships, of all nations, come and go, exchanging the goods of all zones.
Proudly flies the British flag over the Gover- nor's residence, situated in an elevated position in the middle of a splendid park and resembling a royal castle; near the harbour, overlooking the sea, you find the colossal statue of Queen Victoria, the Empress of India, and facing it, at a distance of hardly 250 yards, you see the Powerful at anchor, the most powerful cruiser in the world with her crew of 850. This is an undeniable proof of the fact that all this splendour and all these riches can only be gained and developed for the good of the nation, if a strong and powerful fleet of your own is always at hand, ever ready to protect.
Our poor little Mücke, which was seemingly built in the time of Noah, how she appeared ashamed of herself in the British hospital-the dock-to which she had to go, suffering from some incurable disease or other caught in the strain of her foreign service, and how she looked just like a pinnace compared to the Powerful!
And yet, the volume of the German trade here nearly equals that of the British. In- fluential merchants of our own nationality have settled here, and in the magnificent, most splendidly appointed German Club are to be found at any time our compatriots, who are most highly respected here in this British town.
But please note; the respect is paid to the individual and to the successful merchant, and not eo ipso to the son of the powerful German Empire, which commercially stands second in the world and which, until a few months ago, did not possess a square-foot of territory on the Chinese coast, which latter, for the merchant and trader, seems to be a real gold mine.
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Hundreds of our German compatriots have, therefore, put themselves under British proteo. tion and have made their fortunes here. The British flag protects them because their own has not been able to do so for the long, long years which we have idled away.
Out here everybody, however narrow his'
with such comfort as would bring tears to the eyes of our Chanceller of the Exchequer Every and most lavish care is taken to supply not only the necessaries of life, but also to ren· der existence as agreeable as possible. A cable train, running every quarter of an hour, con- nects the lower town with the residences at the Peak, one of the most beautiful of which is oo- cupied by our Consul-General and his amiable wife.
All the roads are cut into the living rock or made of very hard cement, and the network of streets and roads at the top the mountain is lined by cemented gutters. Everywhere, too, you will see asphalt tennis grounds, etc., which by their position, and lying in terraces one above the other, strongly resemble batteries placed for action.
Hongkong is very strongly guarded. The small island, which, in my estimation, if of about the same size as Capri, has a garrison of six battalions of infantry and strong detachments of artillery and engineers, in addition to the powerful men-of-war, and one sees that Eng- laud too finds it advisable to employ strong military forces out here in the midst of these millions of pigtailed yellow Chinese. The followers of Buddha believe in power_only, and it is, therefore, the policy of the British to show theirs everywhere. The drill ground is right in the heart of the town, adjoining the largest and most beautiful buildings, and on it the British Major drills his red-coated soldiers, and hundreds of almond eyed pigtails watch the movements with an appreciation which would hardly be felt by a German military expert. Down below long rows of heavy unmounted guns lie about unprotected in the courtyard of the arsenal, and are exposed there to general view, and the salutes of the men-of- war remind one daily that Great Britain not only knows how to carry on trade, but also how to act promptly should the slightest harm be- fall her sons.
England not only has a most important commercial centre in Hongkong, but she has also made a strategic base of it, and the heights of the Victoria Peak can without doubt be transformed into a second Gibraltar at a short notice, and to judge by the strong garrison in this small island (fancy little Capri, having a brigade of infantry, foot artillery, engineers and furthermore 1.500 marines) leads one to sup- pose that England wishes to be prepared for any surprise in the Far East. Thus the streets abound with red coats, and it makes a strange
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