June 8, 1899.1
In "The White Rajah of Borneo" Mr. Wild- man gives usa sketch of the founding of Sarawak and of the career of Sir James Brooke. The author while in Singapore made the acquaintance of Sir Charles Brooke, the present Rajah, and the sketch is based in part upon conversations with him. Having told how Sir James made the fierce Sulus and Illanums his fast friends, Mr. | Wildman recounts the incident of the Chinese rising, when the rebels attacked and overcame
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
calls into prominence the contemptible condition, of the detective department, but when one realizes that we are dependent ou the Chinese detectives in such matters and knows how ad- dicted the Government is to the mollycoddling of the Chinese generally it is not surprising that the result has been to allow this new form of crime to go free. There is far more crime in the colony than the public or the Government | is aware of. for the criminal classes have no
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to what is geing on in China in general and Kwangtung and neighbourhood in particular they will provide for the receipt of accurate information ? Not much! They have no de sire for knowing what does not filter through the present official channels, useless as they have proved thomselves and will prove again.
The home Government in their desire to Save the face of the Chinese Government created a lot of trouble, for instead of demanding
the Rajah's small guard and the Rajah himself fear of the Chinese detective, rather the reverse, exteusion, as they well might have done tha
they look upon him as a friend and associate, and very many crimes are never brought to light, as the sufferers fear that if they demand inquiry worse may befall them.
The attacks on foreign ladies do not excite China Town in the least, rather would they be a cause of derision and the perpetrators receive the sympathy, if anything, of the Chinese public; but let such occur to Chinese ladies and guilty parties soon run to earth.
escaped to the river in his pyjamas without a single follower."Sir Charles told me one day, as we conversed on the broad verandah of the consulate, that that night was the darkest in all his great uncle's stormy life. The hopes and work of years were shattered at a single blow, and he was an outcast with a prins on his head. The homeless king knelt in the bottom of the pran and prayed for strength, and then took up the oars and pulled silently toward the China Town would be in a ferment and the did not suffer then they would in their graves, ocean. Near morning he was abreast of one of the largest Bulu forts, the home of his bitterest and bravest foes. He turned the head of his boat to the shore and landed unarmed and undressed among the pirates. He surrendered his life, his throne, and his honour, into their keeping. They listened silently, and then their scarred old chief stepped forward and placed a naked kriss in the white man's hand- and kissed his feet. Before the sun went down that day the White Rajah was ou his throne again, and ten thous and grim fierce Sulus were hunting the Chinese like a pack of bloodhounds.”
CORRESPONDENCE
We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
compensation of breach of treaties, injuries dons to our traders and tradal interests, and the murder of British subjects, they compounded for a seventy-five years' lease. The Chinese Government in return impressed upon our new subjects the fact that they were to return again to Chinese rule and stand the consequences of failing to comply with all the wishes of the Chinese Government in the interval; if they or the next world, through what would hap pen to their children, viz., a loss of land and relegation to the same class as actors, barbers, and boat-people, who are not allowed to enter official rank end its opportunities for squeeze · on official life, the prospect of attaining to being an ordinary Chinaman's idea of the height of felicity. Some of our leading Chinese. who shall be nameless, not only failed to report to the Government what was in store for them in the Hinterland, but set to work to try and obtain valuable lands at ridiculous prices by the circulation of false and malicious reports which tended to foster the trouble. which was being bred by Chinese official action.
Some of our Government officials have such an intense admiration for everything Chinese and the ancient Chinese civilization as compared to the mushroom growth of Europe that they might in regard to the above crimes take a note as to how a Chinese official would deal with the failure of the detectives to get hold of the criminals, and in this case most Europeans would endorse the wisdom of the Chinese method. In China the detectives would be held responsible for their failure to do their work (i. e. of course in a case where the official really wanted to get hold of the criminals, and he would certainly get there) and the detective would not only lose his position, but he would get imprisonment and bambooing, not to mention the incidentals which are attached to imprisonment has been guilty of is in not insisting Another bit of folly the home Govern- ment in China in order to live and not die there under the prison regime. Earopeans would hardly go so far as to advocate the extremes he
THE NAVY LEAGUE AND THE TRANS. would be made to suffer, but they might well
FER OF BRITISH SHIPS TO FOREIGN FLAGS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.
ask that constant failure to detect such serions crimes as the recent assaults and robberies should render the Chinese detectives who are respon- sible for the cases liable to dismissal for their
on the cession of all the islands to the island of Lintin, which faces Deep Bay. south and west of the colony and the These islands are of no use to either ourselves
latter can use them as points from which to or the Chinese Government further than the
barass and coerce the Chinese in the Colony. To the pirate and the gambling-house keepers
DEAR SIR,~Many of us have read with dis. incapacity or rascality, whichever may be the they may become little paradises where they
may the paragraph that is going round the papers that British owned ships are nearly all to be registered under the German and Dutch flags because there is a two thirds saving in the wages of the officers and engineers, especially just at present, when the Navy League at home is stumping the country from one end to the other trying to persuade a respectable class of
case. The position of the Chinese detective in this Colony is such an important and lucrative may fly out of reach of our police and at the one that I would guarantee that were such to be
same time remain sufficiently near the colony the consequence of bis neglect he would have
to ply their trade. The Chinese Government the criminals run to earth in less than forty-them to be used by these gentry, but what is will of course promise that they will not allow eight hours instead of sniggering in his sleeve Chat" of a foreigner.
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at the ease with which he befools the Ban
If proof were wanting of the need for a
the value of the promises of Chinese officials? If these islands are taken possession we will not only be freed from the pirate and the flash
will be raised, for the expense of maintaining it will render it impossible, and the Chinese will have to collect their revenue as is do jo in other
lads to join the mercantile marine in order to radical change in our methods of dealing with gambling house, but the blockade of the part
swell the ranks of the Naval Reserve. Truly a nice inducement to offer the lad who, if he has any go in him and seeks to master his calling, may find himself ousted out of his own country's ships by foreigners after serving a long ap- renticeship on small wages, in many cases & shilling a month. It was only the other day a Glen steamer passed through here with nine of her crew and quartermasters holding master's cer- tificates. What is to become of all these men if the foreigner steps in and takes the bread out of their mouth ? In the meantime the way to stop this would be to place such prohibitive duties on foreign ships as it would make it impossible to run them without a loss. The officers and engineers must put their foot down on this and stop it at the commencement, but it will be in- teresting to see what steps the Navy League take before committing themselves to any de. finite policy. There is no doubt the League must act, as this is a blow aimed at its very vitals through the Naval Reserve. Trusting that you will find space to insert this is your valuable paper, I beg to remain, &c., &c., yours faithfully,
J. J. S., MEMBER OF Navy League,
Hongkong, 27th May.
NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS,”
detective in particular we have it in the lessons the Chinese resident in general and the Chinese to be learned from the fiasco in connection with the taking over of the New Territory. You published in your columus, shortly after the Hon. J. H. Stewart Loc bart's departure particulars as to what was going on there, what for home to report ou the New Territory, full reception the British were to get when taking over their new possession, who were the insti- gators of that trouble in store for the colony, what form the resistance was to take, what was Government act on the information they then to happen to the landholders, etc. Did the
received? Oh, dear, uo! Their detective staff know nothing of such absurd nonsense as that reported. Their leading Chinese knew it to be atter rot. Their friend and coadjutor "The Kowloon Commissioner' never heard of such preposterous stories, he knew everything Kowloon in particular and was ready to swear that was going on in China in general and that the Chinese Government would never coun- fenance such a thing; if there was any trouble it was a popular movement or the intrigues of the secret societies. Yet the facts were known to nearly every Chinaman in the Colony and the subscriptions were raised in nearly every district in Kwangtung. It is true the bulk of the money went into the pockets of Chinese officials and their friends to swell their private hoards, but that is a mers detail. In Sunon the subscriptions were extorted, not merely collected. How about our intelligence depart
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lands, at the port of entry.
Hongkong, 27th May, 1899.
XY.
THE POLICING OF THE OUTSIDE. ROADS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "I DAILY -PRESS.
SIB, With reference to the correspondence in your paper on the desirability of increasing- the police patrol of the roads outside the City limits, I must endorse every word, from my experience of Sunday afternoon, which has been said in its favour. I would mention that I am only a new arrival in the colony, and on that occasion took a walk through the Gardens. From there I found my way into Bowen Road, and although I traversed nearly the whole length of this road, not one solitary policeman did I On the other hand 1 was accosted on meet. two occasions for alms; one man was a beach- comber, and the other a Chinese. It occurred to me that the known absence of police on these " roads by the ruffians of the district must cause a large increase of organised attacks on Euro- peans, and as there are so few places on the level in the colony that residents can stretch- their legs, and considering the great expenso the colony muat have been put to in laying these by the authorities is to see that pedestrians can make use of them without being molested.-I am, sir, yours faithfully,
M.B. G.
Sir-The leader in your issue of 26th May wisely pointed out the advisability of having | ment, if there is such a necessary department roads out, I think the least that could be dona plain-clothes.constables duty on the roads frequented by pedestrian
and also the providing of bicycles to the police patrolling roads, outside the city limits. The failure to detect or trace the perpetrators of the late outrages on ladies
in China ? Well, at last the truth is leaking out through information obtained in Peking by our Acting Minister. What a satire on our local know-alls. Surely they will now amend their ways and if it is possible to be posted as
Hongkong, 29th May, 1899.