<<
August 27, 1898.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
175
TATA's question touches, however, a ques The reply of the Foreign Office to Mr.
tion of more general interest than the status of Her Majesty's Indian subjects in Japan. "The Japanese civil code, as at present worded," says the Foreign Office, provides that foreigners shall enjoy all the "civil rights enjoyed by Japanese subjects except such as are expressly denied to "them by legislation, as for instance the
"
(6
11
right to hold land in fee simple, and that We would commend this paragraph to the "of owning and publishing newspapers.' attention of our contemporaries in Japan with the suggestion that they should seek an official declaration of its meaning.. The question of the position foreign news. papers in Japan will occupy when the new treaty comes into force has already excited much attention and been made the subject of official representations. It has been owning or publishing newspapers applies suggested that the prohibition of foreigners only to the existing state of affairs, being intended to prevent foreigners publishing
Russia has made up her demands on expressed a great desire to see something of | distinotion apparently being made between the same basis as Oriental tradere, who the outside world, a most wholesome long- the subjects of treaty states and non-treaty ask in the first place three times the ing which would have been easily attainable states. The only disability, but a very serious legitimate price of an article in order to in any other country, however hagridden or one, attaching to non-adherence to the treaty be in a position to make sham abatements, conservative. His Majesty's wishes have seems to be that imports from the non-adher- Also slie may be disposed to proffer "as- apparently at last been so far met that a ing colonies will be subjected to a higher surances in the hope of being able to journey to and sojourn in Tientsin by the tariff than imports from treaty states and palm them off as possessing real value, Imperial Court has been decided upon. that they will not enjoy the advantages whereas they may probably possess no more Much state is evidently to be observed, of the navigation clauses. binding force in the mind of the party however, and the young monarch oppressed making them than the assurances with by the burden of the Dragon Crown will regard to Port Arthur. Nevertheless we have no chance of any freedom of move- are constrained to recognise that Russia has ment. Indeed the ceremony to be observed substantial claims to be heard in the set- will hardly be less formal than that tlement of the China question and that her ordinarily prevailing at Peking. A new opposition to the creation of anti-Russian in- palace is to be erected by the Viceroy, as terests in Manchuria is prima facie as reason- there is no building in the port suitable in able as would be British opposition to the His Excellency's opinion for the occupation setting up of anti-British interests in Kwang- of the Son of Heaven. This decision, which tung. If, therefore, any working agreement means the expenditure of a sum running into could be arrived at between Great Britain upwards of a million taels, seems to have been and Russia with respect to their respec- taken owing to the imperious demands of tive interests in China it would be a the Empress Dowager. The poor young good thing for both of them and for EMPEROR is the last person in the world the world at large. We have had a to crave the pump and pageantry which sufficiently irritating experience of ter- have been made inseparable from his ritorial and spheres-of-influence disputes position. He is hedged about with cere- with France in Africa not to wish for a ré-monial so that his subjects cannot get his petition of the same in China with Russia as bur antagonist, or Russia and France com- bined. Recognising the character of Rus- sian diplomatists it would be necessary for the British Foreign Office to be on its guard ngailist being jockeyel in the negotiations, but the advantages that won!1 result from a clear understanding with Russia are such as to make it well worth Great Britains while to meet her in an amicable spirit with a view to arranging outstanding differences if possi- ble. The suggestion that the discussion should be removed from the heated atmosphere of Peking to London or St. Petersburg is not without merit, inasmuch as it would mean that the negotiations world be conducted, on the sdie of Russia at all events, with a fuller sense of responsibility--Mr. PAvLOFF, at Peking, being regarded as an agent whose acts may be confirmed or disallowed accord- ing to the turn of events-and they would also be free from the friction and mis- understanding caused by the distorted reports of the hangers-oy of the yamens and the comments of indiscreet
newspaper correspondents.
THE EMPEROR'S VISIT TO VIENTSIN,
ear; he is entirely out of touch with them aud with the times; the master of almost uncounted millions of people, he is the veriest slave to forms and precedents. Pro- bably there is not a single individual in his wide and well populated dominion who is less to be envied than the Emperor of China. His people may revolt or they may quit the Empire for a freer soil; he is tied by unbreakable bonds to the narrow limits of his court and harem, where, if he has any spirit left to him, he must be weary unto death of the atmosphere of intrigue in which he has to exist. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to him would be a split up of his Empire; in the ruins he might possibly find freedom and the means of really living and reigning over fragment of remaining territory. The only other chance of release for him from his present bondage is the appearance of some official strong enough to promote and carry out a revolution in the system of govern-
ment.
some
But the chances of that seem remote
indeed in China, where the sole ambitiou appears to be the piling up of money.
INDIANS IN JAPAN AND THE NEW
TREATY.
(Daily Press, 24th August). (Daily Press, 23rd August.)
The correspondence with the Foreign The projected visit of the Emperor KWANG Office, initiated by Mr. R. D. TATA, on the Su to Tientsin will be a red letter day in position of Indian subjects of Her Majesty the life of that caged puppet sovereign. in Japan on the coming into force of His Imperial Majesty, who is said to have the new treaty is of importavee not the appearance of a more youth, is now in the only to Mr. TATA's fellow-countrymen, but twenty-seventh year of his age and though also to British subjects in general, So far he has nominally reigned for twenty-three as natives of India are concerned, they will years he is still treated like a child and held be placed at a distinct disadvantage as in such close leading strings that he is not regirds trade with their own country, for even allowed to travel as far as Tientsin India, for some unexplained reason, has not without the/protecting care (or surveillance) deemed it expedient to adhere to the new of the EMPRESS DOWAGER. It will be recol- treaty. Trade from India will therefore lected bylgome of our readers that the Em- not enjoy the advantages of the most peror Tuya Car, then a lad of eighteen, got favoured nation clause and will have to pay tired of the four walls of the Palace at Pek- duty on the highest scale. India's decision ing and the gilded fetters which bound him in this matter is singular, for she gains there, and so far revolted from tutelage in nothing by standing aloof and will probably 1875 ns to escape from the capital aud visit lose much. The non-adherence of colonies Tientsin incognito. He was, of course, that imagined they had reason to fear a speedily recaptured and conveyed back to large and unwelcome influx of Japanese his imperial prison, where he shortly after labourers is comprehensible, but that reason wards died-it was given out from small- cannot have weighed with India. In their pox/ contracted at Tientsin. With the personal status Indians will presumably sad fate of his youthful predecessor receive the same treatment as other tor before him, the Emperor KWANG SU eigners, for the Japanese civil code provides has never
ventured to break bounds, that foreigners shall enjoy all the civil though he has, we believe, frequently 'rights enjoyed by Japanese subjects, no
newspapers
in the vernacular which would by virtue of their foreign ownership and the operation of the law of exterritoriality be exempted from the press laws of Japan, and that the prohibition would be abrogated when exterritoriality was abolished and foreigners became subject to Japanese juris diction. It would appear, however, that no specific assurance to that effect has been given, or reference would have been made to it in the reply of the Foreign Office to Mr. TATA. If that be so, the foreign com munities of Japan are in some danger of losing the advantages of a free newspaper press. It is said that there are many other countries where foreigners are not allowed to publish newspapers, but it is one thing never to have enjoyed a privilege and an- other to have an existing privilege taken away. Also in European countries the vernacular majority of the foreign residents, who must press is an open book to the
necessarily acquire more or less knowledge of the language of the country in which they reside, whereas in Japan, owing to the dis- similarity of the language, the number of foreigners who can read the native news- papers is extremely small. A further point of difference is that in European countries the natives of other European states can receive the journals of their own country in some cases within a few hours of the time of pub- lication and at the longest within two or three days, whereas Japan is more than a month's journey from Europe. Under these cir cumstances the loss of local journals pub- lished in a European language would be severely felt by the European residents in Japan.
The Singapore Free Press of the 15th August says:-A serious accident occurred to Mr. H. B. Pike of the Hongkong Bank last evening. He was riding along the sea-front, near Raffles Hotel, when his horse, a big chestnut, got restive and suddenly bolted. Mr. Pike lost his stirrups He was picked up by a passing gentleman and and was badly thrown, just opposite the hotel. carried into Mr. Abrams', where he yet is. Dr.
vou Tunzelmann was called in and found his
head badly cut; there being a nasty scalp wound, and, we regret to say, symptoms of injury to the spine, which may prove serious.