ཡས་ཚད་ཡོ་་་་་་་མཀ་མད-- "
March 16, 1901.]
MANILA.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
Manila, 7th March.
GEN. MACARthur's new SCHEME.
General MacArthur has hit upon a novel scheme, which promises to be an important aid to the difficult work of inducing the insurgents to give up their rifles. Up to the present time the military authorities have hung out a bait in the form of $30 Mexican, which was offered to anyone who had become tired of fighting or who for other reasons was willing to give up his gun and begin life again as a good peace loring subject or citizen. Of course this sum is considerably above the ordinary cost of the rifles, but it is nevertheless a most profitable business for the Government, because once the rifles are out of the hands of the native tha
pacification of the archipelago will be greatly simplified. Suppose there are 1.00 rifles yet remaining in insurgent han s If they were all turned in to-morrow they would cost the Government $30 1,000 and they would be worth to the Government no one knows how much, but certainly a great deal more than three
million dollars.
ANOTHER PRIVILEGE FOR THE PEACEFUL.
General MacArthur has offered to everyone who surrenders a rifle not only the original $30, but also the very desirable privilege of naming for liberty one of the five thousand military prisoners who are held in Manila and the various prisons of the islands, provided that charges. A man for a rifle is a fair swap and it should be a winning game with the natives.
the man chosen is not held on serious criminal
THE TEXT OF THE (RDER.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Altogether it will not be an exaggeration tɔ say that the final state in which the bill comes to Manila is a disappointment.
"C
M. SPOONER BILL.
997
No questions were asked, and the CHAIRMAN thereupon moved the adoption of the report and
accounts.
Mr. No Tsir MI seconded. Carried unanimously.
Agreed unanimously.
It was proposed by Mr. RUMJAHN and se- conded by Mr. CHUN HI that Messrs. J. H Cox and W. Hutton Potts be re-elected Audi- tors in Hongkong, and Messrs. Deloitte, Dever, Griffiths and Co. in London-at the same re- muneration as before.
The CHAIRMAN thanked the shareholders for their attendance, and intimated that dividend warrants would be ready on Monday.
HONGKONG ROPE MANUFACTUR- ING CO., LIMITED.
The text as telegraphed is as follows :- "All military, civil and judicial power neces- Mr. E. S. KELLY proposed, and Mr. TERREY sary to govern the Philippine Islands acquired seconded, that Mr. Chow Tang Shang bə, re- from Spain by the treaties concluded at Paris elected a Director on the Head-office Board, on the tenth day of December eighteen hundred and the Hon. C. H. Stuart-Wortley, K.C., and ninety eight and at Washington on the M.P., on the London Committee, and that the seventh day of November nineteen hundred appointment of Mr. C. Ewens as a Director bé shall, until otherwise provided by Congress, be confirmed. vested in such person and persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct for the establishment of civil government and for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of said Islands in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and religion. Provided that all franchises granted under the authority hereof shall contain a reservation of the right to alter, amend or repeal the same. Until a permanent government shall have been established in said Archipelago full reports shall be made to Congress on or before the first day of each regular session of all legisla- tive acts and proceedings of the temporary government instituted under the provisions shareholders in this company was held on Satur
The seventeenth ordinary snnual meeting of hereof and full reports of the acts and doings of said government and as to the condition day, 9th inst., at the offices of the General Man- of the Archipelago and of its people shall be agers, Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co. The busi- made to the President, including all informa-ness before the meeting was the receiving of the tion which may be useful to Congress. in statement of accounts and the report of the gen- eral managers for the year ending 31st December, providing for a more permanent government 1900, the declaring of a dividend, and the elec- Provided that no sale or lease or other disposition of a consulting committee and auditors. tion of the public lands or the timber thereou Mr. R. Shewan (Chairman) presided, and the or the wining rights therein shall be made; other gentlemen present were Messrs D. and provided. further, that no franchise shall be granted which is not approved by the Gillies, A. J. Raymond, J. H. Lewis (Con- President of the United States. and is not R. H. Potts, A. Babington, D. E. Brown, and sulting Committee), C. S. Sharp, A. Denison, in his judgment clearly necessary for the
indispensable for the sinterest of the people thereof, and which can not, without great public mischief, be postponed ustil the establishment of permanent civil government, and all such franchises shall terminate year after the establishment of such permanent civil government."
The new order was drawn up on 1st March immediate goverument of the Islands and Captain G. C. Anderson.
and is as follows:-
1st March.
From the date, upon the delivery to the United States of serviceable breech-loading rifles, or serviceable revolving or repeating pis- tols, prisoners of war, in numbers equal to the number of arms delivered, will be released from confinement, the prisoner or prisoners released to be designated by the person delivering the arms unless it shall appear necessary to hold any particular prisoners whose release is asked, but the person who may have turned in the gun may designate another prisoner in place of the one whose release is desired.
Any prisoner who may be liberated in the pursuance of this authority will, upon taking the oath of allegiance, be free to return to their homes and to engage in their ordinary peaceful vocations. So long as they observe their oaths of allegiance they will be anmolested, but a failure to do this upon the part of any released prisoner will subject him to the most severe penalties, not only for such failure but for past offences.
NATIONAL BANK OF CHINA,
LIMITED.
on9
The annual meeting of the National Bank of China, Ld., was held at noon on Saturday. 9th inst. Mr. Chau Kit Shan presided, and there were also present:-Messrs. Chow Tung Shang, J. T. Lauts, and C. Ewens (Directors). A. Rum., jahn. H. Pinckney, E. S. Kelly, Chun Hi. Ng Tsit Mi, Hung Hoi, E. W. Terrey. Sia Ca, and others.
Mr. G. W. F. PLAYFAIR (Chief Manager), read the notice convening the meeting.
The CHAIRMAN s.d-Gentlemen. I have
For serviceable breech-loading rides and ser-now the pleasure to submit to you the Report viceable revolving or repeating pistols delivered as above payment will be made as heretofore authorised and the arms will be received and receipted for by any commanding officers of re- giments, posts or detachments. Reports of all deliveries, with names of those presenting the arms, and names and residence of prisoners pro- posed for liberation, will be promptly forwarded to these headquarters.
The notice convening the meeting having been read,
The CHAIRMAN said: -Gentlemen, as copies. of the report have been in your hands for some days, I will with your permission dispense to come before you with such a good report, with reading it now. We are glad to be able
for the past year was another very difficult.one; hemp prices ruled higher than ever, and, though always expected to return to a normal figure, never did so, making it extremely hard for us to decide what policy we should pursue. When wo met here last year, I warned you not to expect another such year of plonty, but the result is, after all, a very good one, enabling us to pay our customary dividend of 20 per cent, and put a substantial amount to reserve fund. I also told you then that it had become necessary for us to carry larger stocks of both raw and wrought material in future, and if you compare the present report with last year's, you will see that this is being done. The most pleasing feature of the year's business is that our turn- over still contianes to show an increasʊ, în spite of the fact that, owing to high cost of and Balance-sheet to 31st December, 1900 (which hemp, we have to charge what may perhaps with your permission we will take as read). The, seen to our customers a very extravagant price profits and position of the Bank continue to in- for rope. In order to sell as cheaply as possi- prove. Charges account again shows a redne ble, we reduced the margin between the two, tion, but has now reached a limit below which and our profits this year are smaller chiefly for we can scarcely expect it to go if we are to com-
I am glad to say that our prospects bine efficiency with economy. The dividend this for the current year seem very good, and that year is $1.50 against $1.36 last year, and we are
there is every indication before us that our rope sure the shareholders will approve of the policy will continue to grow in favour and increase of adding substantially to the reserve fund each its hold upon the markets it has secured. year. While we have no reason to compla'n of: We are making a strong bid for an impor- the results of the year as a whole, it is as well tant contract now, and, if quality and cheap- to remind yon that we went through a very ness are the only desiderata, we should surely trying and unprofitable summer, owing to the secure it. The extension of our factory has bosh attacks on the Legations at Peking and the delayed by the usual procrastination of the consequent disorgansiation of trade and credit Chinese contractor, but will be finished, L'hope. which ensued. Trade still remains dull owing in about four months. You will then become to the continued uncertainty of affairs in the possessed of a factory nearly three times the North, but when matters are amicably settled capacity of the original one, without having we hope to see a considerable revival in business been called upon to subscribe any extra capital of every description. You will notice from the towards it. I may tell you that a factory such The difficulties of the present situation are totals which we gave you at the foot of the as we have to-day could not now be started on not all relieved so far as the alienation of the profit and loss account that our capital anda capital of less than at least a million dollars; public domain is concerned. So the miners reserve funds now reach a total of $2,420,000. | this I think you will admit is a very satisfactory and timber men are as badly off as ever. So I have further to intimate that your Directors position for the company to hold. far as the reading indicates there is no provi- have invited Mr. Creasy Ewens to a seat on the nothing in the accounts that I can see that sion for the granting of corporate franchises. Board and you will be asked to confirm the ap-requires any explanation, all the items being This latter was very much desired by the Com-pointment. Before moving that the report ordinary ones, but should say shareholder mission and by all the business men of the and accounts be adopted I sha'l be happy to quire further information allout them, or islands. There is a provisional clause but it answer any questions that shareholders may any other points, I shall be pleased to answer does not meet the requirements of the case.
desire to ask.
the question,
THE PASSAGE OF THE SPOONER BILL-NOT REGARDED AS SATISFACTORY.
The full text of the Spooner Bill, as finally passed by Congress, was telegraphed here to-day to the Commission. It went through as a rider on the Army Appropriation Bill of 2nd March. The Spooner Bill has been before Congress for more than a year and while it is very short and concise in text its powers as originally drafted were very great. In the present form in which it has passed, these extensive powers are very much curtailed.
this reason.
There is