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stithe interview which took place at that time. May it not have been the case that the Viceroy approached H.E. the Governor in a conciliatory spirit to use Chinese troops to quell the riot ? | The territory was to become British on the 17th of April. H.E. the Governor was placed in a very difficult and deli·ate position. It is not only China whom we have to deal with. If the policy advocated by the Press had been followed the result might have been a war. It is well known to every Hongkongite that it was not the natives of the New Territory that raised the recent disturbance. Robbers assisted by the Triad Societies and ex-Customs bra veg were the people that offered opposition to the occupation of the hinterland by the British authorities. Their main object was plunder, and in this they surely would have succeeded if it had not been for the prompt action taken on the 16th April by hoisting the flag at once and not delaying it until the following day. I do not for one moment think that the home Government should send officials unable to deal with the present situation.-With the usual apologies, I remain, yours obediently
Hongkong, 27th April, 1899.
JÚSTICE.
AN IMPORTANT SHIPPING
MOVEMENT.
Singapore, 12th April. One of the most important shipping "deals that have been carried out for years in Sin- gapore has just been completed. eleven ships forming the East India Ocean SS. Company's fleet having been purchased by a Singapore Syndicate. The ships of this Company run- ning to Bangkok and Borneo are the Hecate, the Centaur, the Charon, the Hydra, the Gorgon, the Cerberus and the Medusa (to the former port), the Hecuba and Ranee to Borneo, and the Deucalion and Banjermassin.
The Agency of the new Company will be with Messrs. Behu, Meyer and Co., and. for the present, at least, the ships will continue ruu- ning as usual. It may be presumed, however. that a purchase so extensive, and interests so large indicate further developments. We may also add that the East India Ocean S.S. Co., although an offshoot of the Ocean S.S. Co.. of Liverpool, is a distinct undertaking, which has always been carried on on its own basis quite apart from the larger concern.
14th April.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
been but poorly met by British shipowners. First, we find our great Companies engaged in an insane struggle and carrying cargo at 7/6 and eveu 5/ per ton, ridiculous rates barely sufficient to cover their canal dues. Theu they go to the other extreme, and by means of a ring called the " Conference, force rates to 35 and 42/6 for the bulk of the cargo shipped from here, and corres- pouding rates for cargo from Europe. Having finally established rates which are too high, and leave unduly handsome profits, our shipowners find the Germans sending out whole fleets of great modern steamers to capture the bulk of the trade. Look at what is now being done by the fleets of the North German Lloyd. the Hamburg American, and the German Austra. lian lines! The tonnage statistes for the latter half of this year will possess a very painful in terest for those of us who care for out shipping interests or like to see our familiar red ensign floating in the breeze wherever they go.
The impending transfer, recently recorded in our columns, of Holt's Bangkok and Borneo steamers to a German Syndicate, marks a step -or rather a long stride-in the rapid progress which our enterprising neighbours are making in the conquest of the trade of the Far East, For the future it would appear, that the only regular lines of communication between the Straits and Siam, and between the Straits aud British Borneo, will be maintained under the German flag. The British ensign will be hauled down on board of eleven steamers, to be replaced by the German tricolour. About one hundred British captains, officers and en- gineers will be gradually turned adrift in order to make room for their German competitors. The great bulk of the transhipment trade of Siam and Borneo will fall into German hands and be transferred to German liners. Further, a very important miscellaneous trade in coals, oil, and the endless supplies of ships' stores and provisions generally, will go from English to German honses. To what extent this has been already done may be gathered from the fact that the German Australian Company brought 20,000 tons of coal to Singapore last year, and about the quantity will arrive this year, to supply the other, German liners. Considering that we oreated British Borneo and that it was our boast that our interests in Siam were para- mount because 98 per cent of the country's trade was British, the result does not appear to be breditable to those who manage our shipping interests. None can blame our German friends, or do otherwise but admire the skill and energy with which the great German house of the Straits has brought this coup to a successful issue. But it is alarming, nevertheless, to British interests to discover the almost incredible extension of German trade and shipping in this part of the world.... German ability and enterprise have
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same
The lessons conveyed by the acquisition by the Germans of Holt's local fleet should be studied by all and sundry, and more especially by wealthy shipowners and tho-e in high places. If our ship-owners are incapable of dealing with foreign competition and prefer to transfor their steamers to the stranger, the nation at large may as well follow suit and sell out the British Navy at decent prices, because it really looks as if presently we shall not have much of a mercantile marine for our battleships and cruisers to protect-Free Press.
With reference to the abore Messrs. Behn. Meyer & Co. write to the Free Press as follows:-
With refrence to the article in your issue of yesterday dealing with the sale of the East India Ocean S. S. Co.'s fleet, we find a state- meut in the same to the effect that, by the step taken, about 100 British captains. officers, and engineers will be gradually turued adrift in order to make room for their German com- petitors."
We would point out to you that this state- ment is able to cause a mistaken impression. It would lead one to think that the said captains, officers, and engineers are at a moment s notice to be thrown out of their employment, Permit us to state that, in the interests of the parties concerned, we especially applied by cable to the Foreign office at Berlin for permission to allow those now employed on the steamers to retain their situations for the present, and that the said permission bas been granted.
GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA.
THE RECENT NEGOTIATIONS.
The Kabe Chronicle translates the following telegram from Japanese papers:-
Tokyo, 19th April.
A telegram has reached the Government giving a sketch of the negotiations which have been in progress between Cant Maravief, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Sir Nicholas O'Conor, K.C.B., the British Ambas- sador at St. Petersburg. Groat Britain and Russia recently entered upou th 39 negotiations to arrive at an understanding with a view to batween the two removing the differences
conutries in East Asia.
Great Britain proposes (1) That the central part of China south of the Yellow Sea (includ- ing the Yangtsze Valley) ba included in the sphere of British inflaence; (2) That New- chwang be made a free port, being, excluded from the sphere of either country.
[April 29 1809:2
THE GERMANS IN SHANTUNG.
The following dispatch has been received by local mandarins from Chinanfu, the provincial capital of Shantung “A large force of Ger- mans went, about ten days ago, to the village of Knochiachuang, in the Lanshan bills, near Kiaochon, and forcibly evicted the inhabitants. When this had been done, the Germans set fire to a part of the village and then left the place."-Another force of Germans is now! in Jihchao demanding the person of one Hsueh Tien-tze, a townsman of that city, who is charged with having grievously insulted a certain Roman Catholic priest The Germans who have taken up their quarters in the magis trate's Yamen declare that they will not leave the city unless their deman is are fulfilled. It is stated by emissaries returned from Tsintao that the Germans are gathering a large force and quantities of ammonition and food supplies in that place preparatory to a general move upon Chinanfu, but this report must be taken with all reserve.-N. C. Daily News.
ATTACK ON THE YUNNAN, RAILWAY SURVEYÖKS.
}
A FATAL FIGHT.
Chungking, 10th April. A telegram has been received stating that on the 4th inst., the Yunnan railway Survey Party was surrounded by armed and infuria ed Chinese when in the Pichieh district of North-Western Kueichow and had to fight their way through, shooting one man and capturing three, who will be handed over to the Chinese Authorities and severely dealt with.
Shanghai, 24th April.
Pottinger and bis Sikh escort captured in We learn that the prisoners whom Japtain
the recent attack on the Yunuan Railway Survey party were taken by that energetic officer straight to Chungking where they wore handed over to the Chinese authorities, who promptly decapitated the prisoners, a proceed- iug which we think will be viewed with general satisfaction.-China Gazette.
SURVEY OF THE UPPER YANGTSZE.
t
The China Cazette's Chungking correspon- dent writes under date of 12th April Major Radcliff arrived here yesterday having made a survey of the Upper Yangtsze, from Ichang to Chungking, ou a larger souls than has ever before been dou«, showing all the rocks, shoals and rapids Soundings, however, hara not yet been taken; still with such in- formation Major Radcliff feels sure that steamers such as are employed on the Irrawady may ascend to this port.
THE SHANGHAI "SHO TING COM- MITTEE INCIDENT.”
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We understand that the finding of Col. Browne, British Military Attaché, Capt. Montgomerie, of the Bonaventure, and Mr. Byron Brenan, Consul-General, who were ap. pointed to investigate the Shooting Com- mittee Incident" in effect supports the Coun cils action. It considers the second letter of Capt. Rex insubordinate, and thinks that Major Holliday wou'd have acted judiciously if after Capt. Rex's first letter, he had not appointed that officer on the Ras-ia proposes that the Yellow River Shooting Committee. But as the S.V.C. is should form the boundary between the spheres purely voluntary organization and not to of influence of the two countries, and opposes judged from a strictly military standpoint and ground that the territory north of the Yellow Newohwang being made a free port, othe in order that no stigma should be attached to the three officers concerned, the Committee River is within the Russian sphere of influence. recommend that their Commissions be returned to Capt. Rex, Lients. Cameron and Daldy and then that these officers should immediately re- sign.-China Gazette.
It is presumed that a satisfactory settlement of the negotiations will prove very difficult.
The Osaka Shiosen Kaishia's new steamer Tayuen Maru, for the Hankow-Ichang trade, arrived at Shanghai on the 15th April from Kobe via Moji and Tysui. She is a steel twin- scrow vessel of 1,051 tons reg., and was built by Tanaka Yasutada of the Kawasaki Ship- building Company, Kobe. Her dimensions are, length 239ft., breadth 39.52ft., and depth 9.15ft.
At the approaching annual meeting of the shareholders of the Mercantile Bank of India the direc ors will recommend a dividend for the last year a the rate of 5 per cent. per annum on the "A Shares," and 3 per cent, per annum on the "B Shares," that £10,000 be added to the reserve fund, and that the balance of £11,500 be carried forward as undivided profiti
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