354
RUSSIAN ACTIVITY IN KOREA.
Our contem.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
tration of the country entirely according to its own ideas or without due regard to the commercial rights of other nations.
TARY PROPERTIES BILL.
(Daily Press, 23rd October.) Rumours are in circulation as to a renewal of Russian activity in Korea, and a London telegram to the Kobe Chronicle, reproduced MR. WHITEHEAD AND THE INSANI in Saturday's issue, repeats a report to the effect that it is the intention of Russia to occupy Korgano as a link between Vla- divostock and Port Arthur.
(Daily Press, 26th October.) The letter addressed to the Acting At- porary has been unable to place Korgano torney-General by the Hon. T. H. WHITE on the map, but this, it says, is hardly sur- HEAD with reference to the Insanitary Pro- prising when it is remembered that many perties Bill touches the weak point of the places in the peninsula have at least three
measure, namely, that as it at present stands names, or, rather, the characters are read it will be inoperative for preventing the differently by the Koreans, Chinese, and re-erection of houses whose height is out of Japanese. Korgano may be some port near proportion to the width of the streets on Broughton Bay or Port Lazareff, upon which which they stand, There will, if the Bill Russia is supposed to have had an eye for passes in its present form, be one standard many years. Or possibly it is another for houses erected on land hereafter acquired name for Masampho, where the Russiaus from the Crown and another standard for are having trouble with the Korean
houses on land already in private owner- Government just now. Mr. J. N. JOR
ship. Mr. WHITEHEAD proposes that DAN the British Consul-General for
there should be one uniform standard, | Korea, in his report for last year namely, that which it is at present gives a short description of the newly proposed to. apply only to houses erected opened ports of Song Chin, Kunsan, aud
on hand acquired from the Crown after the Masanpo, the latter evidently being the passing of the Bill. If the hon. gentleman's same place as Massampho. Masanpo, Mr. suggestion is acted upon it will follow that JORDAN Bays, lies about forty miles west of
when existing houses have for any reason to Fusan, is a magnificent land locked harbour, be rebuilt-after a fire, for instance, or on and may to some extent displace Fusan as a
account of old age-in many cases a certain trading centre unless the large Japanese proportion of the height will have to be vested interests at the latter place and the sacrificed, which may result in four-storey associations of three centuries prove too ed houses being reduced to three storeys strong to be easily transplanted. Fusan has no water communication with the i3-On sanitary grounds it is desirable that this and three-storeyed houses to two storeys. terior, while Masaupo, situated at the mouth should be done. In the early days of of the Naktong River, has the advantage of the colony Chinese houses were seldom inland navigation and has a harbour im- built of a greater height than two storeys mensely superior to Fusan. Dr. MORRISON, the and when the streets were laid out their Times Peking correspondent, before his re- cent departure for home visited Korea, and in height of the buildings it
no doubt proportioned to the his account of the situation there says:-
was supposed would front on them. But the demand for “At Massampho, a newly-opened magnificent house accommodation and the increased harbour, the Russian Minister, the Ad- value of land have led to a steady in- "miral, and the Military Attaché selected
crease in the height of buildings, until "in May a valuable strategical site, osten- surface crowding has reached dangerous sibly for coaling sheds, and a dock for a figures. Mr. WHITEHEAD in bis letter "private Russian steamship company, but "before the purchase was completed the quotes statistics showing that surface crowd
Japanese, becoming suspicious that suching is uniformly attended by a high death ate, and it is with the object of reducing this surface crowding that he would limit the height of houses hereafter built on land already privately owned to the same stan- dard as it is proposed to apply to houses built on land hereafter acquired from the Crown. The hon gentleman says:-
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mach and the Navarin to the new
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width was
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be some heated controversy, but without compensation it is to be feared the proposed improvement will never be carried into
effect.
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"high officials should have been required to "select the site if, as alleged, it was for a private commercial undertaking ouly, in- tervened, and bought the foreshore, thus rendering the proposed purchase worth leas. Similarly it is certain that any Rus- "Bian attempt to obtain a footing of political
The question of compensation for loss of "advantage under whatever guise will be
rental resulting from the proposed amend "checked by the counter-action of the
ment is one which should be dealt with Japanese." Russia has recently protested
on equitable grounds and possibly on to the Korean Government against the grant
"similar lines to those now followed under of the foreshore to the Japanese and
“like circumstances in Bombay." On this is said to have sent the Vladimir Mono-question of compensation there will probably port. It is presumably this action that has led to the reports of Russia's activity in the Peninsular Kingdom and of her inteu- tion to seize a port. At present, so far as can be gathered, Russia has simply asked for a settlement at the port, not for its complete cession nor even for a lease carry- ing with it the exercise of sovereign rights. The grant of a Russian settlement, however, would form an admirable basis on which to arge increased demands in the future; and Russia's whole action in Korea, as is well known, is viewed with undisguised suspicion by Japan. A conflict soquer or later between these two Powers is by many regarded as almost inevitable, and should such a conflict take place the casus belli will almost certainly be found in Korea. Whichever Power proved the victor, how ever, it is not to be presumed that it would be allowed to determine the future adminis
THE TRANSVAAL WAR,
(Daily Press, 23th October.)
[October 28, 1899.
Transvaal territory. A little further on in the Transvaal is Volksrust, where the chief Boer concentration was said to be, the strength of their forces there being placed at at twenty thousand.. The Daily Telegraph correspondent at Newcastle wired on the 4th October that the Boers had commenced an advance with a general movement of artillery, that the British were preparing to abandon Natal from the frontier to Glencoe, and that General Symonds was prepared to evacuate Newcastle in twenty-four hours. A later telegram stated that the reported advance of the Boers was not confirmed, and another message, on the 8th, said it was reported that the Boers on the Natal frontier were retiring, leaving only patrols. A message of the 12th stated that a con- siderable force of Boers bad entered Natal via Laings Nek. On the 15th we were in- formed that General White had made an advance with twelve guns from Ladysmith, with the intention of attacking the Boers, who were advancing with eleven guns, but failing to draw on the Boers the force returned to Ladysmith without fighting. Telegrams of the 16th October stated that the Boers under Commandant Viljoen had advanced south of Newcastle and that the non-combatants had
evacuated Dundee. A telegram of the 19th stated that the Boers were making a general advance, ap- parently endeavouring to envelop Lady- smith. Next we have the telegram published to-day informing us that four thousand light on Thursday, shelling the position Boers attacked the camp at Glencoe at day- from surrounding heights, and that after hard fighting the British troops captured an almost inaccessible position and five
Placing these telegrams together guns, we gather that the two forces have for some time been feeling for each other and that at last the Boers have de livered an attack on what they considered a vulnerable position, expecting no doubt have had their own position turned and a repetition of Majuba Hill. That they have lost five of their guns will disabuse their mind of the idea that the British troops can be regarded with contempt, an idea that has possessed the people of the Transvaal since the last campaign. We have followed up their success and are may expect to hear shortly that the British advancing into the Transvaal, when the re- sistance will, we believe, speedily collapse. It is with regret we note that General Symonds has been severely wounded and that the British losses were heavy. It has been generally anticipated, however, that the fighting would be severe, and it is to be feared that many more valuable lives will be lost before the Beers treat for peace. The war, we believe, will be a short one, but a severe one as long as it lasts.
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to
(Daily Press, 25th October.) The fact that the transports carrying troops to South Africa are now to be con voyed by cruisers and that a assemble at Delagon Bay mayaised Glencoe, where the Boers have sustained conjectures as to whether any foreign in- their first serious defeat, is situated in the tervention in the Transvaal affair is anti- triangular piece of territory in North Natal cipated. To our mind it appears simply which lies wedge-like between the Orange as an application of the sound principle si Free State and Transvaal territory and which vis pacem para bellum. The convoying of the was stated in a recent Reuter's telegram troopers by cruisers is a matter of ordinary to be one of the points chiefly threatened, military prudence, for while hostilities are Ladysmith is a station on the railway near in progress there is always the pus the base of this triangle. Proceeding north-sibility, however remote the probability, ward we come to Glencoe, a junction whence a that the Transvaal might find an ally short branch line runs to Dundee. Proceeding posessed of sea power and in a position to still northward on the main line we come to cut off unprotected transports,. The as Newcastle, then Charlestown, and hensembling of a fleet at Delagoa Bay is Laing's Nek, where the railway enters the probably dictated by a double purpose,