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often and so ably put by all accurate obser- vers that it is not necessary to restate it here. What little good may be done by the women missionaries is more than coun-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
terbalanced by the prejudices aroused (not so unnaturally, in view of the Oriental idea of woman's duties and conduct) and the terrible risks which are run. It is hard to conceive what excuse any man can have for dragging wife and children into an environ- ment of which he knows, or should know, the perils and misery. Never in future, at any rate, can such conduct be condoned on the score of ignorance. The central bodies must look to it that such criminal folly shall | be a thing of the past. By all means let a halt be called and reinforcements be sent. But let not the weak, the unsuitable, and the untrained be sent back to bring about a similar catastrophe to that of this year. The reinforcements must be trained, strong men, well knowing what they are going in for, and not willing to be made the instru- ments of aggressive governments at home, or to interfere in work beyond their sphere.
THE KWANGTUNG REVOLT.
(Daily Press, 31st October.)
[November 3, 1900.
repetition on a smaller scale of the atrocities them, and occasionally, very occasionally, to perpetrated on the Taipings. It must be be thrown a sop when such a gift neither remembered that in the rebel ranks are some burts their own amour propre or at least of the party which will one day is likely to be of any use." "But if the reform China. Mixed up with very unfor- Board is a nuisance from an official tunate associates, no doubt, there are still point of view, it is certainly a failure from men whose ideas encourage us to hope that the lay standpoint, and this failure is there is still a future for the Empire. They correctly ascribed by Dr. HARTIGAN to the have chosen a bad time for their protest fact that the official element is not with the against the corruption of official China and Board. If the Board is a competent autho- a still worse method. But the propaganda rity on sanitary matters its advice is valu- of the leaders is sound and in justice we able and should not be constantly put on cannot calmly. submit to see them wiped one side, neglected, or deliberately rejected out. Rebels in arms against the authority on one ground or another. The whole of a friendly" nation they may be, but, if working of the system of sanitary control they can prove their sincerity, they can in the colony is thrown out by the dread appeal to the court of the civilised world inspired at home by the idea of "municipal for justice. If we submit to their extinc-control”- -a curious bugbear to thrive in tion and then look to the re-imposition on England. Why should a small measure of the necks of the suffering Chinese people of this be so fatal here, when such large doses the dynasty so long ago weighed in the are beneficial everywhere else under our balance and found wanting, we shall have a flag? And can it be said that the officials lieavy crime to answer for. This we have have been in the past and now are “running" done once before, when Western civilisation the colony so well that no change is called leut its aid to crush, or rather blot out, the for? It is the residents who suffer from Taipings and give a fresh lease of misrule the effects of the official mistakes and to the Manchus. The results we now see shortcomings, but on no account apparently clearly before us. Do we need to go through, must they be allowed to have any real-share the educational process over again?
in preventing similar mistakes in the future or making up for past shortcomings. We are to continue to do without sufficient or suitable public buildings, to continue to have hospitals, etc., erected on unhealthy or inappropriate spots, to struggle still with perfectly preventable ills and incon- veniences; but the officials must be allowed to carry on everything as before—and the reason apparently is that the official mind, at home and abroad, has a professional bias against unofficial advice and assistance. And yet these officials, outside the walls of their offices, are probably staunch upholders of the value of representative institutions. While they continue to exemplify this pretty ~: paradox, the community pays the cost, in more senses than one, and the nearest ap. proach to a municipal institution in tha island is reduced to a position little better at times than that of an academic debating society.
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THE POSITION OF THE SANITARY BOARD.
As will be seen from the information published in another column, it is now anticipated that the rebellion in Kwangtung is not far from collapse, largely owing to the fact that arms and ammunition are running short and that the stringent prohibition of
(Daily Press, 27th October.) importation prevents the collection of a fresh On the 10th March, 1896, when discussing supply. Were it not for the fact that the in our leading article the Bill for the recon- news comes from a source which commands stitution of the Sanitary Board up for first respect we might not be inclined to treat it reading at the meeting of the Legislative differently from the many contradictory Council that day, we made some remarks reports which have come in during the last which it will not be out of place to repro- few weeks about events in the Two Kwang duce now. We then said :-
:-"There is only provinces. The spirit in which we receive one opinion in the European community as the tidings of the rebel failure must depend "to the necessity of bringing the colony into to a great extent on the use which the Chi- a thoroughly sanitary condition, and if to nese Imperial forces make of their victory. "cope with an epidemic it were necessary While it is not to be denied that the state for the saving of time to throw the people's of affairs in the neighbourhood of our furniture out of window every one would own Kowloon territory has recently been say throw it out by all means. But it is intolerable and that the continuance of such "right and proper that the commonsense of a state might lead to serious complications, "the community should have some say in it cannot be said that we can look with com- "the matter and that it should not be left placency on a complete success of the wholly in the hands of officials responsible; Government troops if it is to be followed to no one but themselves; officials who by an extermination of the adheren's may be over-active or sluggish by fits and of the rebel cause. Both sides during starts. The whole history of government the struggle have accused their oppon"in Hongkong is a history of conspicuous ents of brutality, robbery, and murder, and the truth of the charges is hard to sift. But one thing seems certain that the rebels -"reformers", they style themselves-have shown a remarkable respect for missionaries and for westerners generally, and no com- plaint has been heard that they have done any damage to the persons or property of foreigners. It cannot be claimed that the hands of the Manchus, and other officials are all equally pure. The Canton authori- ties, it is true, have faithfully kept their pledges to the outer world, but the minor officials have undoubtedly in some instances connived at anti-Christian attacks. Indeed it would be impossible to withold sympathy from the rebel cause, were it not that the fact that the villagers have been so often found fighting on the Imperialist side makes us disinclined to believe all that is claimed by the rebels for their good conduct. If what they claim is true, why do the country people not welcome them instead of fighting against them? Such ac- tion is certainly not inspired by love of the Manchus.
If it turns out to be beyond doubt that the rebel cause is doomed to fail, we shall have one duty very clearly before us and that is to use our influence to prevent a
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failure, the progress the colony has made having been achieved in spite of and not "with the assistance of the administration. "We throw no aspersions on the good in- tentions of the officials, but good intentions 'do not always bring forth good results." We went on to point out that the party which gave to England County Councils need not fear a violation of its political principles by joining the effort to secure for Hongkong some small share of the liberty enjoyed everywhere else under the British flag, namely, the liberty to manage our own Municipa and Sanitary affairs. This was four years and a half ago, and now in October, 1900, we are in no better position. The Sanitary Board, it is true, strives with praiseworthy persistency to do useful work, but if it depended on the encouragement given by the Government for its inspiration it would have given up the task in disgust long ago. Dr. HARTIGAN put the case strongly (but not, we think, too strongly) on Thursday, when he said that many of the officials look on the Board as a nuisance, “which should be a Board only in name, should not have power to dismiss its most worthless cooless coolie or turn on the most necessary water-tap, a Board to be played with or snubbed, as the humour takes
|
THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS.
Sir
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.]
SHANGHAI, 26th October, 8.42 p.m.
Claude MacDonald left Peking yesterday (Thursday).
The Green family was found at Paotingfu by the allied troops, safe but in bad health. An Imperial Decree announces that the Emperor is willing that the Court shall return to Peking if the Allies do not insist on impossible conditions.
An official despatch from Canton to Nanking reports the rapid extermination of the rebel movement in Kwangtung.
Kwei Chun joins the Grand Council. Nieh Chil-kwei has been appointed Gover nor of Anhwei, replacing Wang Chih-chun.
SHANGHAI, 28th October, 8.50 p.m. It is reported that Yu Hsien has com- mitted suicide to escape beheading. Pro- bably both Kang-yi and Yu Hsien are only officially "dead," the object being to per- suade the Allies to forego demanding that they shall be beheaded.
If this ruse is successful, probably Prince Tuan's suicide will shortly be reported.
The Empress Dowager has sent Yu Chi- yuan to collect all possible monies from the Yangtze and Southern provincial treasuries and to organise a patriotic militia in the Yangtze Valley on the Boxer model,