·196
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
alongside them.”. They are very much of | THE SANITARY BOard and coN-
TROL OF THE SLAUGHT) R-
HOUSES.
(Daily Press, 7th March.)
kidney with the sow " that was washed;" they have returned to the mire. It is little use drilling Chinese soldiers or attempting to teach them the art of war unless it be intended to retain them under Western drill. So long as European officers are in command with full power to punish offences At the meeting of the Sanitary Board held against discipline, and who at the same time
on Thursday last a letter was read from the have the co-operation of European non- Colonial Secretary stating that His Ex- commissioned officers, they may keep Chi-cellency the Governor was not prepared for nese troops fairly up to the mark. At the present to adopt the recommendation of Weihaiwe possibly the experiment may the Board with respect to the slaughter- answer so long as it is on a small scale, but houses. At a meeting of the Board held on we doubt either its propriety or its safety the 2nd February the following resolution was if made on a larger scale. The Chinese passed :-"That the Board recommend the find discipline odious and irksome; they "Government to transfer the management have no martial enthusiasm, no esprit de" and control of the slaughter-houses of the corps, no sentiment apart from their pay. If they serve at all it will be for the sake of receiving good and regular pay; and it is very certain that, given a temptation to do so, they would desert readily Moreover,
on an offer of better terms.
military life seems to have anything but an improving effect upon the Chi- nese coolie. It transforms him from a stupid kind of sheep into a bravo and a bully, ready to terrorise the peaceful in- habitants of the district in which he is located in order to levy blackmail from them. The Chinese "brave" is notoriously a terror wherever he goes. This is partly due, perhaps, to the fact that he is usually impecunious-suffering from want of regular pay; partly from natural rowdiness and brutality, characteristics which are con spicuous in all city mobs in the Celestial Empire. The Ichaug correspondent of our contemporary, referring to the rebellion in Szechuan and the passage through that port of soldiers to assist in su pressing it, says that these troops behaved very badly to the people of Honung and Tanyaug, through which they passed. "The rebels," he adds,
"could not be more dreaded than the Im-
**
perial troops. From the lips of one man, "who came from the district, I was told "the soldiers demanded goods from shops without ayment, forced teashop and restaurant keepers to provide food, rav "ished women, and behaved in an ex "tremely bad way." Whether these same troops would have refrained from these excesses had they been under foreign dis cipline it is hard to say; probably they would have been more under control, but the experience of the decadence of the German drilled troops from Woosung seems to indicate that they would relapse into brutality 80 soon as the restraining hand of the European officer was withdrawn. On the whole, the more the scheme is con- sidered, the less does Lord CHARLES BERES- FORD's plan for reorganising the Chinese army commend itself to us. There is great doubt as to the permanent value of the experiment, as a measure for upholding order and repressing brigandage; and there is the undoubted danger of forging a weapon for use by the Chinese Government against foreigners. The good to be derived is less manifest than the risk that seems to attend the project.
H.M.S. Brisk, a cruiser of the third-class, ar- rived at Singapore on the 26th February from Plymouth, which port she left on November 30th. She is a ship of 1,770 tons, and carries air guns and a crew of 178 men, and is com- manded by Capt. Robt. B. S. Wrey. Her other officers are Lieutenants N. L. Stanley and -P. A. H. Underwood (R.N.R.), Paymaster F. C. Leonard, Chief Engineer E. J. Edgar, Sub.. Lieut. R. H. R. Mackay, Surgeon J. Shand- M.B., Engineer A. P. L. Dupen, and Gunner B. Roper.
16
"
meets
The
[March 11, 1899.
SUPREE COURT.
3rd March.,
IN ORIGINAL JURISI-ICTION,
BEFORE SIR JOHN CARRINGTON (CHIEF JUSTICE).
A PROMISSORY NOTE TRANSACTION. In this case Bernardino de Seuna Fernandes, Count de Senna Fernandes, sought to recover from Cassum Mousa the sum of $4,500 paid to the National Bank of China under a promissory note for which his late father was guarantor.
Mr. J. J. Franois, Q.C. (instructed by Mr. Gedge) appeared for plaintiff and Mr. E. Robin- dant. son (instructed by Mr. Hursthouse) for defen-
of Viscount Fernandes, and on his concluding Mr. Francis announced that that was the case for plaintiff.
Mr. Robinson resumed the oross-examination
Mr. Robinson contended that no case had been
made out, that no answer was required, that plain- tiff had not shifted the onus which lay on him in the first instance on to defendant. In regard to the way in which the note came to be signed, evidence did not bear out the allegations of the petition. He admitted that a loan was obtained from the National Bank, but the whole proceels went to Fernandes, Cassum Moosa transfering the whole value for which the promissory note purported to be given to Fernandes.
defendant to answer.
His Lordship-I think there is a case for ground for my thinking so; perhaps it would I will not indicate the be better I should not.
colony to the Sanitary Board upon the expiration of the present lense to the "farmer." This recommendation with a rejection on the part of the Govern- ment, no reasons being assigned for such re- jection. The use of the words "at present" in the Government's reply leads, however, to the conclusion that the rejection is only tem- porary and is made in view of the prospec- tive reconstruction of the Sanitary Board on a wider and more popular basis.
We are led to this conclusion because it is im- possible to conceive of any reasons of good government which would justify the con- tinuance of the present farming system. That system is unmitigatedly bad.
Mr. Robinson, continuing, said he had very Hon, F. H. MAY, speaking at the meeting little to say in opening. His Lordship would of the Sanitary Board at which the resolu have gathered clearly the nature of the defence tion in question was passed, said:"It from the pleadings and from the cross-examina- tion. It was a fact that the late rant and de. "seemed to him a monstrous thing that the
fendant were well-known to each other, being slaughter-houses, where the whole meat personal friends for a very long period, and a supply of this large and important colony certain amount of business was done by defendant was slaughtered, should be under the through Baron (as he then was) Fernandes "absolute control of a Chinese farmer. with Humphreys and Company in the way of "Recent experiences had shown them ordering goods from England. Defendant had, "what grave abuses crept in under other channels for transacting his business and "the present arrangement. Mr. OSBORNE be used other banks than the Oriental Bank. About autumn of the year 1891 he did practi- "and himself were aj pointed ก com-
His gen: cally no business through Fernandes. "mittee
to enquire into these abuses, eral position up to the time of the clesing of nis "and in their opinion such things could shop and the practical ruin of his busines was not be put a stop to until the Board had described by the plaintiff when he said he had a "sole control of the slaughter-houses." Yet big shop in Macao. The transaction in rogard the Government declines to give the Board to this promissory note was that he ratified the such control. The only reasonable explana-signature made to it and became surety for
Baron Fernandes at the latter's request.
"
10
tion of the refusal is that administrative
а
changes are impending and it is deemed desirable to postpone the transfer of the mangement of the slaughter-houses until those changes have taken effect. We can- not, in the absence of any information as to the nature and probable date of the changes, recognise the explanation as sufficient one, for if the Sanitary Board were reconstructed, or a Municipal Council formed, the new body would natur lly take over the machinery of the existing Board as a going cooceru and there would be no dislocation of the routine work. It would be well, however, if one of the un- official members of the Legislative Council would afford the Government an opportunity of definitely stating its position in this mat- ter by asking for a statement of the reasons on which the rejection of the Sanitary Board's recommendation is based. The question is of some importance, not only as affecting the food supply, but also as affecting the character of the
The farmer administration.
is said to make out of the business eight or nine thousand dollars a year, which sum under a proper system ought either to go into the public revenue or to be utilised in lowering the fees and so reducing the price of food. If the Government pronounces in favour of the present system and declines to give reasons justifying its choice unfavourable inferences might be drawn.
missory note was written by his clerk, Joseph Defendant said the signature on the pro- Ismail, who frequently signed for him. Exhibit No. 5 was written by one of Fernandes's clerks, but he signed it. The letter was, however, not written as he had intended it to be. Tharo was. an account between Fernandes and the Now Oriental Bank, to whom the former was indebted. He had heard that he owed the Bank between 85,000 and $6,000. Old Fernandes wished to borrow some money from the National Bank of China to pay off this debt, and then the clerk, of old Fernandes drew out the document pro- duced and witness signed it. He signed it because he said he wanted this loan, and after ho had signed the letter he suspected the and from the explanation given he learned contents and had them explained to him, that he was the man who wanted the monsy
according to the letter. He was not in need of money at the time, so he kept the letter back. It was not true as the letter stated that the New Oriental Bank had asked him to repay something which he owed. When his clerk told him he had signed the pro- missory note he told him he should not have done so and scolded him. A few days after- wards he saw the old. Count and they had a dis- pute about the matter. He asked him to return to him all the papers and money he had belong. ing to him, but be returned him nothing, and also refused to render him an account. No sc- count had been rendered to him up to the pre- sent time. The first time he saw the promis
oy noto was when he was sued at the Macao Court. It was not true as stated by plaintiff that he had ever paid interest in connection: with the promissory note nor had he ever re-
0