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THE FOREIGN MINISTERS AND THE CRISIS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
supposing that unfortunate young man to be still alive, is there much likelihood of a cause of action being discovered. No such be feared that we shall united action is at all
[October 22, 1893.
in order to produce a reversal of policy, such reversal being specially inimical to foreign interests. Nevertheless it may be will refuse to recognise accomplished facts or insist upon à restoration of the Emperor KWANG SU to power, supposing that un- fortunate young man to be still alive.
Government that the humiliating and it is to doubted whether the Ambassadors.
(Daily Press, 17th October.) Have the Foreign Ministers at Peking recognised the usurping deposed the Emperor KWANG SU? They were all of them accredited to the EMPEROR, and they can hardly, without instructions from home, recognise another person, not be ing his legitimate successor, as ruler of the Chinese Empire. Hasany official notification of the deposition of KWANG SU been made to the Foreign Governments and their Representatives? The reported death of the Emperor has certainly been denied officially, but has any proof been given that His Majesty is still in the flesh? Have. the Foreign Representatives at Peking de-
be treated to of the Foreign Ministers endeavouring to ingratiate them- selves with the tools of the woman who has so long pulled the strings at Peking, and who may, through their divisions and greed for contracts, be still enabled to play them off one against the other, until some crisis arrives which will compel a disruption of the venerable but misgoverned empire
THE INLAND NAVIGATION RULES,
manded an audience with the EMPEROR, have been pressing the Tsungli Yumen for is used in the same way as equal-
and, if so, what has been the result? If it is simply announced that KWANG Su, the son of Heaven, and the inheritor of all the dignities appertaining of right to the head of the Ta-tsing dynasty, has been put aside to make room for an ex-Empress Regent, are the Great Powers going to recognise such an act of usurpation? It must be remembered that the recent coup d'état at Peking was no popular revolution, no uprising of the sovereign people against an unpopular and arbitrary despot: it was merely a palace cabal against a young monarch who was possessed of a desire to introduce reforms in the
(Daily Press, 18th October). Recently in the Times a telegram from Hongkong appeared stating that all the ports on the West River were "thrown open (Daily Press, 21st October.)
to trade." We will not stop here to enquire According to one of our Northern Con- what the author of this understands by temporaries, the Foreign Ministers at Peking" thrown open to trade," but we suspect it
4 trade with an audience with the EMPEROR, but all mending as the expression
"the natives" which figures so prominently. their efforts have so far been ineffectual. This was doubtless expected, because, even in the prospectuses of African companies, it if alive, every chance of a rescue would be chartered or otherwise. That is to say, jealously guarded against. Rumour at means nothing at all! Doubtless it is a fine Peking has it that His Imperial Majesty sounding phrase, calculated to catch the eye is confined in a small building on an island of the British public, but if we mistake not in the centre of a large, deep lake, within the time has come when earnest endeavours the precincts of the Empress's Palace, from must be made to throw some light on the which the bridges connecting with the shore China problem by supplying those at home have been cut away. The probability is, with reliable information to enable them to however, that the EMPEROR has been re-judge of the important issue that is at stake moved from this troublous scene and that the in the opening of the inland waters of that EMPRESS DOWAGER and her creatures will country. How important that issue wait until the popular excitement has died all merchants and manufacturers, i
Honestly, he w. fx ( y ) down and then produce a new puppet from shipowners, we endeavoured to call at
sovereign in China can-owing to their seclusion in the Palace-ever do so, com- manded the respect and good will of his subjects. On the other hand, the Empress-known Dowager is disliked and her confederat LI HUNG-ORANG is cordially execrated by the bulk of the people. The acts of the Empress since she so rudely grasped the reins of power have been violent and vengeful. All those officials who appeared to be opposed to her views and influence at Court, have been either executed, secretly murdered, sent into banishment, or come pelled to fly for their lives. She has been making a seedtime of slaughter; there will sometime be a harvest of vengeance.
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The position, thus created in Peking is at once peculiar and difficult, the more so, if, as we may well believe, there is no concert among the Foreign Ministers. A telegram in the home papers stated recently that all the Foreign Ministers save the British and German Representatives, had called on Lit HUNG-CHANG to condole with that, veteran villain on his downfall, and if this was the fact, it may be taken as a pretty plain proof that concerted action could hardly be expected where such a difference of opinione prevailed as to the de merits of the probable instigator of the revolu- tion. It is true that, in consequence of some attacks on foreigners, the. various Ministers sent for and insisted upon the free passage of bodies of troops to act as Legation guards, but this was more, perhaps, to ensure their own safety against any mob demonstration than from any idea of using them as a weapon or a threat against the so-called Government. Apparently the differend Ministers are, like the rest of the world, for
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two treaty ports foreign steamers have lit- "tle chance of competing agaiffst juuks, es- pecially if the ports happen to be in the same province and at no great distance from each other. Junk-borne goods would probably pay lekin at the port of shipment "and discharge and no more. Steam-borne cargo would pay lekin at both ends to the "provincial officials; and in additiou a full- duty and a half to the foreign Customs, merely for the reason that it was carried "by steamer.
among the stock of Manchu princes and to in our leader of April 30th last, when we declare him the successor to the late showed that the imposing of an equal tariff on Emperor TUNG CHIH, it being well nativegoods, whether junk or steamer-borne, that KWANG So was not the had a distinct relation to the laying down nearest in succession, only it suited the cost of British goods. It is satisfactory to EMPRESS DOWAGER at the time to raise see that this view of the question receives bin to the Imperial dignity Before re-support from so able an exponent as Mr. coguising such a domination, however, it BYRON BRENAN, whose opinions all thinking would perhaps be within the powers of the men will read with attention and interest, Ambassadors, to demand particulars and Mr. BRENAN, in his trade report for Canton, proof of the demise of KWANG SU, or, if 1897, says: “As general carriers between that Prince were declared still alive, the reasons for his deposition from the Throne. The events of the past few weeks have been so extraordinary, the reactionary measures taken so extreme, the political uncertainty so great, and the dislocation to trade so ser- ious throughout China, that the Representa- tives of the Treaty Powers are fully entitled to ask for explanations. If they are united in their demands they will be able to compel some more satisfactory replies than those yet" vouchsafed. It is to be feared, however, that the Ministers do not move in unison. From what leaks out, it would seem that the British, German, and Japanese Minis- ters are working in harmony, but the rest of the Diplomatic Corps pursue a different policy. This is to be regretted at a time" when united action is so desirable to compel the new régime at Peking to afford. them some explanation of the present anomalous state of affairs. It cannot of course be said that there is actually no Government or no Ministers" with whom the Foreign representatives can treat, for while the EMPEROR, whose power was always of character, has mysteriously the Tsungli Yamen (with
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steamers get ne consequence is that e cargo between ports and they must get freight out of foreign "goods." (The fours). "This causes "the freight to be so high that the advantage is all on the side of the junks. This practice of placing steamers plying inland under the “same regulations as on the coast seriously "retards the expansion of domestic trade, "and the injury thus caused will become more apparent when, as promised, all ia- land waters shall have been opened to steam navigation. There is obviously something absurd in regulations which "impose an additional tax amounting to rather shadowy 71 per cent on all goods carried by disappeared," steamers, as if steamers were the lux- in communica- "more than persons shipping by junk" tion), remains practically the same though It is the more satisfactory to read this as its personnel has altered somewhat for the it would not appear to have always been worse. If, however, the Ministers of this Mr. BRENAN's view in the matter, judging. Yamen should desire to argue that the by page 30 of his "State of Trade at the changes recently made are only such as "Trenty Ports of China," which says —“ It occur frequently in Western countries," is only where these junks and steniners where one party goes out and another comes come into competition that the preferential tariff concerns us, and it is an open ques- tion, whether, the favoured treatment ao- corded to junks is injurious to itrade in
the present waiting events. They may Ministers have always beom the Foreign'ury of the rich who can afford to pay.
meantime have apį lied for instructions from home as to how to act: they may be waiting for some overt act, that will afford a pretext for outside interference. So far, no such pretext has been afforded, and unless the Powers should decide collectively that it is not for the interests of China nor for those, of Powers engaged in-
her that the Empress Dowager should 'ba to reign in place of the Emperor KWANG SU,
a ready reply will be at hand. Recent change but a dynastic revolution effected
trade permitted events in Peking have not been a-party